The Key to a Dead Heart
by GrimNightingale
Summary: A meeting entails a naive love between two children whom meet only briefly in the past. However, the childish emotion blossoms into full fledged passion when both Kazekage of Suna and female hunternin of Konoha meet once again under circumstance. Gaaraxoc
1. Chapter 1

Neither Gaara nor any other Naruto character used in this fan fiction is mine. If I owned Gaara, I would not be writing this story. Instead, I would be spending sweet time with a chained up Gaara.

* * *

**Key to a Dead Heart**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Wiping Tears**

A young girl with deep mahogany chestnut hair reaching her shoulders in a wildly jagged cut raced across the sandy field kicking the ball to the other side to score a point for her team. The children she had just met that day ranged from ages 7 to even 12 which meant she was the youngest being only 6. This did not by any means make her neither slower nor dull. Her father had recently started to train her to become a ninja and she was absolutely ecstatic. However, her training had ground to a halt in the past month when her mother died and her father still suffered from repercussions of grief. One day he suddenly had an impulse and swept up the girl to travel around the many ninja countries as her mother had always dreamed of doing. Every week, they would move to a different village and sightsee. This week, it was Suna.

The young girl swiftly dodged an older lanky boy and shot the ball straight into the goal. She could tell her team had won when she felt a few of the kids' pick her up above their heads and cheered. One of them made note of the time and soon all of the children were running back to their homes for the evening's dinner and dreams of sugarplums, leaving the girl to start walking to the park since she did not want to go home just yet.

Her warm chocolate brown eyes searched the parks for people when she found a small figure on one of the swings. She crept up quietly to the swings so as not to disturb the person on the swing. As she neared, she noticed that the small figure was a boy with wildly tossed dark red hair that appeared to be coughing or shaking for some reason. The boy didn't even notice when she stood right in front of him.

"Hello. Is this seat taken?" She pointed to the swing right next to him. The boy snapped his head straight up and his wide eyes of shock met her calm ones. The girl's smile suddenly faltered to which the boy's expression also changed to one of anger. _'She probably just realized that she was talking to the monster. Now she'll run screaming.'_ Thought the red haired boy and clenched his eyes shut waiting for her to scream "Help!" or "Bakemono!" or even both.

The young girl felt the sand beneath her feet shift slightly but paid no mind thinking that it was just the wind picking up. She had been so caught up in the boy's aquamarine eyes surrounded by dark rings that she didn't notice the tears he had been shedding until he closed his black eyelids. She wasn't sure how to comfort someone who was crying since she had never seen anyone but herself cry. Not even her father. She, however, remembered what her dog used to do when she cried though…

Moments passed as the boy's mind could conjure up a scene of the girl's face contorting in disgust. She might have even run away by now; too scared to even scream. Tears began to flow out of the corners of his closed eyes again but he suddenly felt something wet on the side of his cheek. His eyes shot open and before him was the young girl licking his tears away with her wet little tongue. The girl leaned away and smiled at him.

"Don't cry anymore, please?" The boy stared at her not knowing what to do or even think. "Why are you crying?" The boy paused and he cast his eyes downward.

"… No one will play with me."

"Oh. What's your name?" The girl inquired. The boy continued to look at the ground in shame. _'She'll be afraid of me after I tell her and she'll go running.' _His mouth tightened into a thin line and the girl waited patiently for his answer.

"Gaara." He waited for her screams or her fast receding footsteps. Instead, he felt a smaller soft hand grasp his and yank on it.

"Well Gaara, I would love to play with you. My name's Kasumi. First name's Hitomi. Better remember it because I'm going to be the best ninja ever!" Hitomi held onto Gaara's hand tightly and led him towards the slides. Once she stopped abruptly and Gaara collided into her back sending both of them toppling over. Hitomi blushed and got up after Gaara quickly stood up. He looked over at Hitomi's face and wondered why it was pink then frowned.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?"

"Why? Should I be?" Hitomi looked up at Gaara's eyes.

"I'm different." He warned.

"How so?" Her sweet voice made Gaara pause. He didn't want to tell her but she would soon find out anyways and she would hate him just like the others. _'She'll surely run away from me this time.' _He thought and opened his mouth to whisper his answer.

"I'm a monster."

"… My mommy used to paint her eyes black too. Not as much as you but she still looked so pretty! And so do you, Gaara-kun! You're no monster!" Gaara's eyes lightened and a smile emerged banishing any traces of loneliness.

* * *

**2 days later**

"Gaara?" Hitomi propped herself up on her elbows and bag next to a lying Gaara in the sand.

"Hmm?"

"I have to leave Suna tonight." Hitomi's voice rang out in sadness and Gaara immediately sat up from his lying position. His clear eyes searched hers and started to almost water.

"Why? Stay. Please. Stay with me forever." Gaara whined.

"I can't. But I want you to promise me something before I leave." Gaara nodded instantly. He'd do anything she wanted him to. Whether it be to scale the mountains of the snow country or even wander across Suna's dry deserts without water for however long she wanted. Anything for her.

Hitomi blushed before she looked away from his face. "Promise me that you'll find me and marry me someday." Her blush grew and she looked at Gaara to decipher his reaction. Gaara's face just remained at the same constant expressions and his eyes bore deeply into hers.

"Oh..." Hitomi looked downwards at his lack of response. Gaara had been expecting Hitomi's wish to be a bit more complicated and he smiled brightly at Hitomi. "Of course. But I thought we were already married?"

Hitomi stared up at him and grinned. "Not yet!" Hitomi reached into her bag and pulled out a small carefully hand carved wooden box and handed it to Gaara whom looked at the small box inquiringly. "Okaa-san made this for me. You can have it but I'm keeping the key." She reached for her necklace which held a small silver key. She turned it over to the back and showed Gaara the engraved message that read 'Hitomi & Gaara.' "This is how we'll find each other later." She took the necklace off over her head and unlocked the box. Gaara stared at the box inquiringly as a soft melody started to play from the box. "This is a lullaby that my okaa-san used to sing to me every night." Hitomi smiled softly at the box while letting Gaara listen to it for a while. "Take good care of it Gaara." She closed the box and locked it then wore the necklace once more.

"I promise I'll find you with this and we'll get married for real."

"Okay." Hitomi watched Gaara tighten his hold on the box and the both of them just lay on the cool sand of the night. She soon found herself a bit exhausted but did not want to leave her friend. That is until a blonde man came looking for Gaara like he did every night. He was Gaara's uncle and had addressed himself to her as Yashamaru the first night they'd met.

"Hello Hitomi-chan. Gaara, it's time to come home." Yashamaru took Gaara's hand and started to lead him away. Gaara walked for a while with Yashamaru before he ran back towards Hitomi.

"I love you Hitomi-hime." Gaara leaned forward and placed his lips upon Hitomi's cheek. He then opened his mouth and faintly licked her cheek before sprinting back to Yashamaru.

Hitomi held her hand up to her cheek with a cherry blush and stared off after Gaara. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she thought she saw Yashamaru frown. She moved her eyes up to Yashamaru's face but it was not so. Yashamaru seemed to be smiling at her and Hitomi watched as the both of them walked back to their home. If she hadn't been cursed at the time with a child's nativity, then she would have known that Yashamaru's smile was feigned.

That night, Hitomi and her father had loaded the carriage with their belongings and set off on their journey to their next stop: Konoha. Hitomi could feel her deep chocolate eyes well up with tears as she watched the moonlight play upon the passing sand. Suddenly a familiar voice resonated throughout the desert and Hitomi's head shot straight up. _'Gaara?'_

"Otou-san, stop the carriage man! I think I just heard Gaara scream!"

"You know that bakemono?" The man in charge of the carriage looked back at the petite girl. "Stay away from him. He's dangerous." The man even sped up the carriage to further the distance between Suna and himself.

"No he's not! You're lying!"

Hitomi wanted to hurl herself out of the carriage but her otou-san caught her in his arms.

"There's nothing we can do, dearest Hitomi. It's too late. I'm sorry." He whispered into her ears. At that moment, Hitomi could feel her tiny heart shatter into a million pieces.


	2. Chapter 2

Oh and by the way, I know the licking in the last chapter was a bit… off, and I'll try to explain it.

As a child, Hitomi had always been sheltered and brought up in a house filled with joy. Her parents had never cried in front of her and even after her mother's death, her father had continued to smile. Thus she has never seen anyone other than herself cry and she used to have a dog that would always lick her face especially if she were crying (you know how they say animals can sense when you are sad). She takes from her own experiences with the dog that that is what you're supposed to do when someone cries because she doesn't know what to do thus licking Gaara's tears. However, Gaara has never had anyone do this to him before and somehow gets this message that that is how Hitomi shows her affection. So right before Gaara leaves, he licks Hitomi's cheek like she did his to show his affection. Very childish, I know but it goes to show the sense of an innocent child's love.

I don't own Gaara nor do I own any other Naruto characters. Tis a pity, I know.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Hunter-nin**

* * *

"Arigatou, Hokage-sama." The young lady with long locks of mahogany chestnut hair bowed deeply in respect but shook with excitement and couldn't take it anymore. She ran across the Hokage's office filled with books managing to dodge the large desk and reach the blonde woman standing by the window where she gave the woman a death gripped-hug. Had it not been for the blonde woman's inhuman strength, she probably would have suffered from the aftermath. "Thank you so much, Tsunade! Thank you! It's a great honor!"

The blonde woman let a smile escape onto her features as she looked down upon the younger girl's head.

"Hitomi, this first mission I've assigned to you is quite dangerous. You need to be serious. This mission may take a while since the subject only ever appears every so often in Suna." Hitomi's velvety brown eyes looked up at Tsunade's golden-brown ones and grinned. She stood up straight and saluted.

"I promise to complete my first mission as a full-fledged hunter-nin." Hitomi allowed the two words of her new ranking roll off her tongue and decided that it was most definitely one of her favorite to use. She took the folder of her first hunter-nin mission from Tsunade and left her office, throwing back a wink and a peace sign.

Hitomi flopped herself onto her bed of satin sheets in her apartment and allowed her waist-length hair to spread itself. She opened the folder of her first assignment with anticipation and read it quickly.

'Rank: S

Mission Info:

A missing-nin of Konoha that has recently been spotted in the city of Sunakagure. Files on this ninja-

Name: Satoshi, Ken

Age: 20

Hair color: red

Eye color: blue

Specialties: taijutsu, weaponry

Level: ANBU

Wanted for: rape (2 counts), murder (38 counts), attempts in stealing and selling off Konoha blueprints to enemy villages.

Other notes: He will most likely be back in Sunagakure as soon as the Ayako festival begins. There is information pointing to a desire of something in the black market. Further information on this is unavailable at this time.

That was all that Hitomi needed to read before she flipped the file closed and cheered.

"Hell yeah! Time to take on my first mission ever! Hear that Otou-san?" She jumped off her bed and barged into her otou-san's room next door. Her smile faded as she couldn't find a trace of her otou-san. '_Where'd he go this time?_' Her thoughts were cut short when she felt someone tickling her from behind. "Ah! Hahahaha- stop! Haha- I mean- hah- it!"

"How are you going to succeed in this mission if you can't even fend off your own otou-san from tickling you?" The strong deep voice sent recognition through Hitomi's system.

"I just didn't fend you off because 1) you're my otou-san and 2) you're too strong for me! But I won't fail. I promise!" Hitomi turned and smiled warmly at her otou-san's tan skinned face adorned with black hair and random wisps of gray. His face bore the wrinkles and scars of many battles as well as the stress accumulated over the years due to Hitomi's constant energy and ideas. He could never be seen wearing anything other than white pants and a black kimono with a detailed blue dragon printed on one of the corners sewn on years ago by Hitomi's Okaa-san herself.

"Hitomi, you know as well as I that I am much too old to be as strong as you anymore. That is why I have faith in you to complete this mission and if you don't then I don't care. You will always be this old geezer's little Hitomi." He caught Hitomi in a headlock and gave her a noogie.

"Otou-san! I'm not little anymore!" She wrenched herself from her otou-san's grip and grinned with a head full of messy straight locks. "I'm going to be late so I'm leaving now. I think this mission will take a while. Possibly even a week, so be safe. I won't disappoint you. See ya!" Hitomi rushed through the door grabbing her bag of belongings on the way and waved one last time before she left for Sunakagure.

Hitomi's otou-san stood by the door watching his sweet little child run off on her first mission of the ranking she had always aspired for all those many years. He gave a weak smile.

"Good-bye my dear Hitomi. Watch out for yourself…" He whispered into the wind.

Two days passed after Hitomi left Konoha for the Wind country's Sunakagure. On the third day she had finally managed to find Sunakagure. It wasn't that hard due to the fact that it was the only designated location throughout an entire flat and scorching desert.

As Hitomi approached Suna, she donned on her newly upgraded attire of a low v-cut black halter top and a black skirt with fishnet gloves extending from the top of her elbows to her hands where they were covered with red fingerless short gloves on top. She wore knee-high black boots with white feathers rimming the top. On her waist was her hitae-ate tied proudly as a belt and on her neck lay a black chocker with a key attached to it as an ornament which she made sure to tuck safely within the crevice of her breasts. As an addition to the desert scenery, Hitomi topped it all off with a long white cloak complete with golden detailing designs on the bottom and a long katana tied to her waist. She nodded in approval of this new attire she had just thrown together and masked herself with Konoha's special hunter-nin mask which was an ivory with the konoha symbol on its' forehead and red outlining on the eyes. _'And I'm ready for some ass-kicking.'_ Hitomi smiled beneath the mask and cracked her knuckles before she flew up onto the roof of a Suna home and completely disregarded the entrance gate and guards.

"Wow. It really hasn't changed much." Hitomi took in the overview of Suna and compared it to the older version stored deep inside her memory. She sat on the roof for a few minutes before she glanced at the setting sun and decided that it was time to hunt down this little snitch. Hitomi was about to hop down from the roof before she glanced back out at the fiery desert landscape. She thought she saw something and squinted her eyes to look closer in defiance of the sun's pink rays.

'_Red. It's red hair. Wait- red hair?_' She did a triple take and nearly lost her balance from the edge of the roof. '_But the Ayako festival isn't even going to start for another 4 days… But I suppose the sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can go home.' _ Smiling, she dashed off into the ocean of sand ready to take down her opponent.

Meanwhile, in the peaceful midst of the sand, a young man with a head-full of messy blood-red hair practiced on a newly developed jutsu versus his sister with dirty blonde hair that was tied up into four pigtails in the back of her head.

"Temari, you're getting slower. Go home and rest." The younger brother said monotonously and looked at Temari out of the corner of his eye to which Temari sighed.

"I am pretty beat. That last mission you sent me on was utterly impossible."

"It can't be impossible if Shikamaru could complete it for you." Gaara watched as Temari twitched at the mention of Shikamaru and how he had upstaged her.

"Whatever. Come home soon for- what?!" Temari watched as a wall of sand instantly shot up to defend her younger brother from an onslaught of shuriken. Both she and her sibling looked just in time to see a shroud of white and black descend onto the desert grounds. The both of them instantly noticed the hunter-nin mask bearing the powerful symbol of Konoha- their ally. "What's the meaning of this?" Temari kept her hand on the hilt of her fan ready to attack.

Hitomi stood cloaked in the white garment unsure of what to do. _'What do I do? Do I state that I'm here to kill him and list off all the naughty things he's done? Or do I go with the latter and just attack?' _She pondered before she stared into the man's aquamarine eyes and was instantly captivated by its brilliance. '_I guess the latter!'_

She quickly unsheathed her katana and dashed forward towards the man with a quick swing. The katana sliced through but Hitomi soon realized it was a replacement as sand poured instead of blood. She looked around and found the red haired man rising from a mountain of sand. She positioned herself to make another dash towards the opponent but found that she couldn't as a bout of sand had taken a hold of her ankle. She tried to wriggle her foot out but only managed to have her other foot sink into the sand and soon, she was being engulfed by the sand that traveled all the way up to her waist. It took a firm hold of her cloak and katana and begun to pull her towards the sandy abyss by these objects.

She quickly made several hands signs that released a powerful current of cool water from deep underground and canceled out the sand upon her bottom half. She managed to slide out but lost her katana to the sandy tentacles and landed on another patch of sand. _'If he's this good at ninjutsu then I'd hate to see his taijutsu and weapon-wielding.'_ Hitomi reached up at the bow of the heavy cloak and yanked on one of the ends and allowed it to pool at her feet revealing the rest of her body and adding speed at the lost weight. _'Damn it! I'm on his playground but…'_

"I'll get serious this time. Let's get down to business." Hitomi tossed shuriken at the man to which his sand automatically blocked. He sent his sand over to Hitomi and crushed her. However, this was only a shadow clone and poofed instantly after the sand's crushing blow. The man could not see where Hitomi was and began to panic on the inside, scouring the desert landscape with his eyes but not prevailing. Suddenly, from the side of his head came a kick that was delivered at an amazing speed and nearly knocked the man over.

'_This is… Just like Lee's battle…'_ The red haired thought as his ultimate defense rebuilt all of the sand around him in an invisible barrier. Hitomi landed softly on the sand that glistened in the light of the last rays of the setting sun. The man straightened himself out, but Temari ran in front of him and glared at Hitomi.

"State your business with the Kazekage." Temari growled.

"Kaze… Wait, you're not Satoshi, Ken?" Hitomi's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Of course he's not! He's the kazekage!" Temari exclaimed and Hitomi's face paled considerably. She picked up her katana from the sand a few feet away from her and drew it back in it's sheathe and scratched the back of her head with a weak smile.

"Heheh. Woops. I guess I should have read the rest of the portfolio, huh?"

"Woops?!" Temari gained plenty of angry veins on her head and clenched her fists. "You don't just attack someone then apologize later after they're hurt!"

"Gomen! Gomen! I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me Kazekage-sama. I accidentally mistook you for another man I'm supposed to find. He has red hair too with blue eyes and since it's not a very common hair type, I just assumed that you were… Gomen." Hitomi bowed deeply at the kazekage in apology. '_Oh my god. First mission as an official hunter-nin and I go attacking the Kazekage! I'm such a dumbass!'_

"Hn." The kazekage turned swiftly and headed towards the city before he stopped and without looking back he said, "This time get checked in with the guards and stay in a hotel. Not a roof." And he continued to walk away. Hitomi blushed and hung her head low with embarrassment.

"He knows…" Hitomi sighed. Temari felt downright sorry for the younger girl and laid a reassuring hand upon Hitomi's shoulder.

"Meh, he knows everything. C'mon, let's get you checked in."

"Thank you. And sorry again… I guess I'm just a bit anxious to finish the mission."

" How about you pay for dinner as a little apology gift, eh?" Temari grinned down at Hitomi in acceptance of the apology and led her towards the entrance gates.

* * *

Author's Note:

This chapter was… blah. But I've finally figured out what to do with this story and it may just be a very long fan fiction. Depends if I'll still want to use the main plot later as I plan to now.

Same as last time. Constructive criticism welcomed very much so. I do love to hear what I need to do to improve and such. If you have the time to spare a few moments to review, please do.


	3. Chapter 3

No owning of Gaara or Naruto characters anywhere here. Sorry.

* * *

**Chpater 3: Apology Not Accepted**

* * *

A file was laid down onto the kazekage's desk by Temari. The red haired kazekage made no motion of picking it up and reading it so Temari picked it back up herself with a sigh. _'Sometimes I swear he's getting too lazy for an ex-murderer.'_ Temari opened the file and read the information of Hitomi aloud to her youngest brother and Hitomi who stood on the opposite side of the desk.

"Name: Kasumi, Hitomi

Age: 17

Hair color: brown

Eye color: brown

Specialties: taijutsu, multiple water techniques

Level: Hunter-nin

Missions accomplished:

S- 2

A- 12

B- 23

C- 9

D- 7

Village: Konoha," Temari looked at Hitomi's file picture and raised an eyebrow.

'_All things I already know._' Hitomi thought and the memory of the day she had her file picture taken flashed back. It was a nice day until Naruto had barged in only wearing boxers right as the picture was shot. She thought it too funny and did not have it retaken and kept it as her file photo. Now, however she wanted to squish herself in the corner and die as she watched Temari hand the photo over to the kazekage. _'Not him! Why does he have to be the kazekage? The hottest guy I've ever seen just HAS to see that stupid… He's not hot. What am I talking about? That bastard made a fool of me and hit my pride without even trying. I hate him!' _And with that thought, Hitomi frowned to herself and made up her mind that the kazekage was not someone she liked.

She was so caught up in muttering obscenities under her breath that she didn't hear the kazekage ask her a question. He closed his eyes and sat patiently waiting for Temari to shake the girl out of her foolish daydreams.

"Hitomi-san. The kazekage asked you to take off your mask to make sure that you're you." Temari said in a whisper to the girl. The kazekage noticed this transaction and wondered what had transpired between Temari and the girl in the last three hours for Temari to go so easy on her.

"Oh! Right!" Hitomi snapped out of her murder fantasies and unknotted the bow on the back of the mask. She felt a whoosh of cool air invade her once covered face and allowed the revealing of her identity to Temari and the kazekage.

The first things that the kazekage noticed were her eyes. They were consisting of a warm familiar substance that caused him to feel an unfamiliar pang in his heart. She had beautiful ivory skin unfazed by the desert's glare- much like the kazekage's, but with a bit of a tanner complexion. Her small but cute dark red lips also stood out with color and curled up in a smirk.

"I am Kasumi, Hitomi. You can just call me Hitomi though. No –san or –chan, thank you. I'm here to hunt down Satoshi, Ken- a missing-nin of Konoha." She reached in her small side slung bag for a folder with the missing-nin's information. "I hope that you will be so kind as to allow me to continue my stay in Suna and hunt him." '_Him? Kind? Pfft! The jackass nearly crushed my ankle with his damned sand.'_ Hitomi bit her lip angrily while she handed the tan folder to Temari who read the information to the kazekage.

He gestured to Temari for the folder and skimmed through the information. He flipped over the first page of the brief summary and unclipped a photo on the next page of the file. He held the photo up for Hitomi to see.

"Is this the man you've mistaken me for?" Hitomi took one look at the photo and instantly sweat dropped.

"I guess. I didn't really look at the photo because like I said, red hair is not common and you have similar colored eyes so I just kind of assumed that you were him. Gomen." She bowed again.

"Temari, escort her to a nearby hotel to check in and help her with anything else she needs." With that, the kazekage slid the missing-nin's folder across the desk towards Hitomi and focused his attention on the nearby stacks of papers in need of approving and signing.

Hitomi almost let out a growl as she grabbed the folder and walked out of the office with Temari at her side. She closed the door and instantly turned to Temari.

"Temari, I believe that your kazekage is one of the most… pretentious stuck-up sno-" Hitomi felt Temari's hand muffle out her accusations and whisper in her ear.

"Shh! My brother can hear you through the door perfectly." At this Hitomi blanched and Temari took her hand away.

"B-brother?" Hitomi stood slack-jawed at Temari until Temari grabbed her wrist and led her out. Temari and Hitomi ran out of the kazekage building and into the streets of Suna that was blanketed in moonlight. "You never told me he was your brother!"

"You never asked and I had hoped it wouldn't come up. Something about your youngest brother outranking you and giving you orders is just a little embarrassing."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I won't lie though. I don't like your brother one bit."

"Yes, he can be quite… annoying at times but he's improved by a lot compared to how he was seven years ago." Hitomi decided not to ask.

"If he's much better now then I'd hate to see him when he was littler." Temari smiled.

"By the way, his name is Gaara." Temari kept walking but Hitomi stopped in her tracks.

'_Gaara?_' A rush of images from her past hit her and nearly made her clutch at her head. The images were blurred and played out like a home film. '_"I'm a monster." "Stay." "I promise…!"_' Hitomi only caught a glimpse of a blurred out form of red and tan before the images disappeared as quickly as they had come. She didn't notice that her eyes were closed until she heard Temari's voice right next to her.

"Hitomi? Are you alright? I told you not to eat that much ramen!" Temari placed a hand on her shoulder. "Seriously, are you alright?" Hitomi opened her eyes to take in the familiar scenery she had been in before the episode had hit her.

"Yeah. I guess I just took a pretty rough trip down memory lane. By the way, do you have a maid in your house?" Hitomi changed the subject and thanked the great Kamis' that Temari did not push it.

"Actually, no. Now that I think about it, maybe it's about time we hired one." Temari said aloud.

"Perfect! I'll be your maid! Think of it as an extra apology." _'and a perfect chance for me to find out more about Gaara because he's so cute and mysterious and… a complete asshole! That's right, I will find out his most embarrassing secrets and mess him up for life! Payback for hitting my pride that way.' _Hitomi started to cackle maniacally with her hands clawing at the air.

Temari decided not to question this as she often had to encounter this behavior from her younger brother, Kankurou. She knew instantly from experience that from this 'clawing' motion and the evil cackle that the girl was plotting something that probably had to do with Gaara. Temari considered turning Hitomi down on the offer (or more like demand) but remembered how her restaurant experiences and talks with Hitomi had been quite favorable. _'It can't be too bad. I'm sure Gaara can handle anything. Plus, it'd be nice to have another girl in the house for once.'_

"That'd be nice. How much did you want us to pay for your services?" Hitomi stopped cackling and grinned at Temari.

"Can I work for room and board?" Hitomi could tell from Temari's expression change that she was very hesitant.

"I'd love for you to do that but I'm not sure how Gaara will feel about that." Hitomi took this moment of hesitation to act.

"Pleeease? I have nowhere else to go." Hitomi pouted out her bottom lip and allowed her eyes to grow big and watery.

"Argh. Don't do this to me!" Hitomi let out one single tear escape from one of her eyes and instantly knew she had won Temari over. "Fine, whatever. We don't really have any open rooms so you can either sleep in my room or the couch."

"That's fine! I'll take the couch. Thank you so much Temari!" Hitomi gave Temari a quick side hug before Temari led Hitomi to their home.

Once they got to the large house built of tough compact sand and adobe, Temari let Hitomi in.

"You hungry? I can fix something. Kankurou and Gaara probably haven't had dinner yet." Temari placed her fan against the wall and made her way to the kitchen. She never made it there as she was stopped abruptly by a flash of black and red landing in front of her way.

"I'm sorry but I cannot allow you to cook, Temari. My services are required to start as soon as I get here. As long as I am here I will please you and your family with my cooking and services or I guarantee your couch back full price!" At this Temari laughed.

"Suit yourself. I'll warn you now though, it's pretty hard to please Kankurou and Gaara with anything so don't expect any great thank you from them." Temari threw back one last sincere smile before she dragged her fan up the stairs behind her towards her room leaving Hitomi downstairs alone in the vast kazekage resident.

She took this time to survey her surroundings of the plain ivory room color. The couch and the huge T.V. was placed in a more den-like arena a few steps below the ground compared to the main level. The stairs were built to the right of the entrance with a bay window right next to it. Hitomi entered the room to her left which Temari had made clear that it was a kitchen. She entered the kitchen and was instantly awed by its vast space and island table complete with black leather bar stools. It practically made her forget that she was in a desert at all by the cherry wood cabinets and black marble countertops. She made her way to the room on the left side of the kitchen to find a cute little dining room painted a wine red with a cherry wood table and four chairs in the center. It was one of the cutest houses she had ever seen yet it held a certain state of formality.

Hitomi smiled as she noticed an apron hanging on a hook.

"Time to get to work…"

Much later that night, a rustling could be heard at the entrance door as it swung open to reveal a hungry Kankurou dressed in his usual attire of a black suit with a hood bearing a close resemblance to a cat. He set down his mummified object on his back with a loud thud by the stairs and headed straight for the dining room all the while yelling.

"Temari! We're home. Where's dinner?" _'Or the animal that got ran over and set up on the table as dinner…'_ He thought grimly to himself as he opened the dining room door. What he saw left him standing slack-jawed at the doorway. It was a table set up with loads of food including chicken, sushi, vegetables, and all other different assortments of food. It was like a table of food fit for a king. Even the wine glasses and the utensils sparkled like never before. Kankurou still stood at the door way with his drool hanging out of his mouth and didn't notice Gaara enter in right after him.

Gaara upon arrival had placed his gourd in his room upstairs before he trudged back downstairs to witness the horror of Temari's cooking once again. But tonight was different. He found Kankurou standing by the doorway of the dining room and instantly watched as his mind conjured up images of a dead road killed raccoon for some odd reason. He sidestepped around Kankurou's drooling face before he looked upon the glamorous dinner table set with actual food. If Gaara ever allowed his emotions to display on his face, he decided that he would probably be standing there slack-jawed as well but not to the point of standing there with drool like an idiot similar to Kankurou. He wondered how Temari could have improved her cooking skill at such an amazing rate when he felt a nudge at his shoulder.

"Wow. Dinner looks awesome!" Both Kankurou and Gaara whipped their heads around to look at their sister standing in-between them.

'_If Temari didn't make this... Who-_' Both Kankurou and Gaara's thoughts were interrupted when the door joining the kitchen to the dining room flung open to reveal a beautiful girl with long mahogany chestnut hair carrying a large plate of wagashi and a bottle of sake.

"Welcome home!" She set down the plate and the bottle and wiped her hands on her apron and smiled at the three sand siblings. "You must be Kankurou. I'm Hitomi. Nice to meet you." She bowed. Gaara out of the corner of his eye watched Kankurou's hunched form increase the rate of which drool was excreting and mentally shook his head. However, he gave a quick and unnoticeable look-over of the Hunter-nin. Apparently, she had changed from her fighting outfit into a little light purple dress with frills and lacing and a frilly apron on top that bore the words: 'Kiss the Cook. I'm Cute.' "Well, I hope you like the food I made. Did you guys know that you're out of food? I had to go shopping but that's okay. People in Suna are really nice. I got a bunch of deals. Well, why are you all just standing there? Dig in!"

"Alright!" Temari cheered and sat herself down while Kankurou ran over to his spot right across from Temari and almost started eating but Hitomi quickly hit his hand with a spatula she pulled from inside her apron pocket.

"The kazekage eats first."

Hitomi smiled to herself and thought this was the perfect time to start harassing Gaara. She pulled out Gaara's chair which was next to Kankurou and grinned at the skeptical Gaara still standing at the doorway.

"Won't you sit down… Gaara-kun?"

Gaara stood with a sense of bewilderment at the endearment placed upon the end of his name. Nobody had ever called him that. Even his older siblings had called him Gaara-san for years. Who did this girl think she was to call him something like that? Yet at the same time, he felt a gentle tug at his heart- something he had never had the pleasure of feeling before and he quite enjoyed it. However, it would not be proper of him to allow such behavior towards him when he was supposed to be the fearsome ex-monster of Sunakagure: The sand's ruthless murderer.

"Don't call me that. Be formal when you speak to me." Gaara took his seat next to Temari instead and ignored Hitomi's offering.

'_Shit shit shit. Maybe I shouldn't have offered the chair and left my seat open. Damn!'_ Hitomi thought to herself as she remembered that she had set up a trap for Gaara to sit on the chair. His weight on the chair would have pulled the string from the bottom and triggered the bucket of water over head to drop on his head. Hitomi had mapped it all out before she started cooking. _'Oh well. I just can't sit down. That's all._' She feigned sitting down on the chair next to Kankurou. Instead, she placed all of her weight on her feet and legs to hold her up.

"Oh yeah, Hitomi will be staying with us until she finds the missing-nin she's after. Isn't this great?"

"Yessss! Good food!" Kankurou raised his arms in joy.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Temari gained several noticeable veins on her forehead.

For the next 15 minutes, Hitomi and the sand siblings had finished eating and were helping themselves to dessert. Hitomi thought she couldn't take it anymore though. Placing her entire body's weight solely on her feet was making her sore and it started to hurt really badly. She thought she couldn't take it anymore and placed her arms on the table to help support some of the weight but it only took off a bit of the weight for a short while. Beads of sweat dribbled their way down her face and on the back of her neck. '_Well, this is my limit!_' She stood up abruptly with a red face and excused herself with empty dishes to the kitchen.

She stood in the kitchen with one hand on the counter panting. "Well, at least I made it! Whew." She came back into the dining room and cleaned the table of the empty dirty plates and placed them into the dishwasher. She was about to start washing the dishes when she heard Kankurou call her name. She went back out into the dining room and addressed Kankurou.

"Yes? Did you need something?"

"No." Kankurou started making faces at Hitomi trying to convey a message to her but she couldn't decipher it.

"Oh. Then why'd you call me?" Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Temari making gestures and faces at Hitomi also.

"Gaara told me to." She whipped her head over to Gaara and caught on instantly trying to dart away from the room but it was too late. Hitomi felt the ice-cold water pour upon her and drench her clothes and hair. She stood there shaking in realization as Gaara made his way to the door.

"ALRIGHT! This means war! Don't think I'll go easy on you, Mr. Sandman!" She screamed and pointed at Gaara all the while shaking out of rage and he stopped to watch her. "I'm going to make your life miserable while I'm here. You'll see. I always get the last word!

Hitomi watched as Gaara turned and left the room but caught the little smirk he wore before he did so. '_So that's how he's going to play. I'll have to get serious then…'_ She bit her lip and grinned evilly.

* * *

Author's Note:

If you have moments to spare, please review! Like I said, I love constructive criticism and any other kind of compliments and just reviews in general. I've noticed that a few people have reviewed and… I still can't stop cackling. I'm just so happy. Thank you for reviewing!


	4. Chapter 4

Wish I owned Gaara and Naruto. But I don't.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Pancakes Make All the Difference**

* * *

A loud yawn escaped from Hitomi as she rolled herself over too far off the edge of the couch and landed on her face with a thud on the floor.

"Owwwie!" Hitomi gripped her red face with her cool hands in a pitiful attempt to quench the pain. She heard shuffling from behind the couch and groggily opened her eyes to witness Kankurou laughing at her.

"Shut up." She snapped but started laughing along.

"Move over. It's my T.V. time before work starts." Kankurou shoved the blue cotton blankets off the black leather couch and onto Hitomi's still lying form beside the couch.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Hitomi threw the blankets off of her and back at Kankurou. She stood up from the ground and brushed herself off.

"Shh! Don't wake the bear!" Kankurou shushed her and proceeded to unwind the controls to his playstation 2.

"Tell me about it. He's such a jerk." Hitomi sat down next to Kankurou and crossed her arms.

"Gaara? Nah. He's different now. Not like anything he used to be except sometimes, he's still a bit commanding. Otherwise, he's pretty cool."

'_Temari had said that as well. I'm starting to think he must've been a real royal asshole back then.' _Hitomi silently thought before she tuned into what Kankurou was saying once again.

"What I actually meant was Temari. She gets mad if I spend too much time playing games instead of reporting to work straight away in the morning but c'mon! I need a break once in a while. So does Karasu."

"Karasu?"

"My puppet. He's awesome! He's been with me for ages and has never failed me."

"You carry around a toy?"

"He's not a toy!" Kankurou raised his fist to defend his weapon.

"Puppets are toys. Get it straight." Hitomi smirked at the riled up Kankurou.

"Yeah? Well, this 'toy' could kick your ass all the way to Kirigakure and back!"

"Prove it." Hitomi had been itching for a fight for the past two days that she had been staying in the Kazekage's home. She had not seen Gaara since the water incident and was getting anxious to work out his demise.

"Fine! Name a place and we're there."

Hitomi barely got to open her mouth before she heard a loud yawn from the stairs. She heard Kankurou growl beside her and chuck the controller back at the base of the T.V.

"The bear has awoken. That's my cue to sneak away. See ya." Hitomi watched Kankurou shoot straight for the door, (narrowly avoiding a groggy Temari wiping her eyes of any remnants of sleep) before she headed off to Temari's bathroom upstairs to perform her morning rituals. Soon after, into the kitchen emerged a wet Hitomi donning her usual ninja attire complete with her katana tied at her waist by her hitae-ate.

"Going somewhere?"

"I'm planning on bugging the hell out of your lovely little brother today. Want to come?"

"No thanks. Besides, aren't you getting a bit sidetracked from your main mission?"

"Sometimes side quests are a must to improve oneself. Have you never played Valkyrie Profile 2 before? Duuh. Anyways, getting back at Gaara in any way possible is almost as high up there on my priority list as hunting down Mr. Satoshi. Besides, according to the file, he's not due to appear in town until tomorrow. What an idiot, right? He travels in a pattern. Now, what would you like for breakfast today?" Hitomi pulled on her cooking apron and washed her hands at the sink while waiting for Temari's answer.

Only a short while after Temari left, Hitomi placed several of the morning's fresh chocolate chip pancakes into a little box before yanking off her apron and leaving the house.

"Kazekage-sama. There is someone here to see you."

"Bring them in." The shinobi assistant gave a nod before exiting the room. In the meantime, Gaara set down his pen and flexed his hand thankful for this break from reading and signing documents. He allowed his eyelids to sweep over his aquamarine eyes and remain there in a resting mode. He felt the sudden presence of another shinobi in his dusty office but did not open his eyes, prolonging his resting time. This time was cut short, however, when a familiar voice interrupted.

"Yo, Gaara. I brought pancakes laced with my very own hate and malice. I do hope you'll enjoy them." Gaara opened his eyes all the while taking in a frustrated breath. He fixed one of his would-be famous glares (if he had let most of the people he directed this glare at live to tell the tale) pointedly at Hitomi's smiling face. He glanced down as Hitomi placed the opened box of delicious-smelling pancakes right on top of the papers that he was writing to a neighboring village.

When Hitomi received no reply, she hopped up on his desk purposely deflecting his glare and picked up one of his papers. "Hmm, this seems so boring. You do this all day?"

"And night." Gaara reached over to take the paper from her hands but she yanked it away.

"You really have no life." She smirked and switched the paper into her other hand.

"If I didn't then I wouldn't be here right now, would I?" He grew tired of the keep-away game and sat back down in his comfy red kazekage chair.

"Ah, but don't we all wish that would happen. You not being here I mean."

"I know." Gaara said softly under his breath but Hitomi caught it and felt a stab of guilt and remorse before it was gone in an instant as Gaara used this moment of weakness to grab the paper from her hand using his sand.

"Well anyway, I'm here to deliver these pancakes as a little thank you gift for letting me stay with you today. Although one of these pancakes has a little something I'd like to call wasabi. Just an extra little surprise I threw in this morning that I just knew you'd love and since there are four pancakes total, you'll have a one in four chance in claiming the prize."

"Who said you could stay with me?"

"I did and that's authority enough. Oh, don't let your breakfast get cold. By the way, I told your secretary to go take a hike so he probably won't be able to help you with anything today." Hitomi smirked. "But on the other hand, you have me!" She cheered.

'_The devil. I swear she's the devil's incarnate! Look, there! I can practically see her horns. They must have been hidden by a strong Genjutsu before. It won't look too good for Suna if I kill a Konoha hunter-nin, will it? Damn. I'll find a way._' The young kazekage thought defeated for now by this harmless looking girl. He reached over and picked up one of the pancakes.

Hitomi watched anxiously as Gaara brought the pancake closer and closer to his mouth. It was only inches away when he tossed it over his shoulder and it landed perfectly into the garbage can instead of into his mouth. Hitomi's jaw dropped.

"What?! How'd you know?" Gaara did not answer her but silently watched as her hand accidentally swept over his jar of pens and proceed in knocking them all over the ground. Hitomi looked down at the mess she made and sweat dropped.

"Woops." She laughed nervously and leaned over to collect the many pens that had fallen. '_Calligraphy pens? That's way old-fashioned. Hasn't he heard of, oh I don't know, ball point pens? They're much easier to work with not that I care or anything… Because I don't. He just seems so familiar. That's all._'

Gaara rolled his eyes when she bent down to pick up the same pens that he had been contemplating to launch at the pile of papers earlier. He watched her pick up one pen at a time but something glistening caught his eye. He eyes roamed towards the place he had seen the flash which led him to catch another flash of light from something that was falling out of the cleavage of Hitomi's breasts. He didn't know why he was all of a sudden so interested but found himself staring intently and impatiently waiting for the tiny object to fully unmask itself from her bosom. At last, when Hitomi bent a bit farther down to reach a pen farther away, a small silver key had fallen out from its place in-between her breasts yet stayed attached to her neck by the small chains of the choker she wore.

The silver key had some kind of worn away message on the hold but Gaara didn't need to read it for he already knew what it said. He was hit by a wave of memories and strangely enough; warmth that he had found her once again, or rather she found him. He was caught up in the moment and didn't notice Hitomi finish picking up the pens and following his gaze with her eyes towards her chest.

"Ah, you pervert!" She grabbed the jar-full of pens by their black wood and chucked them like kunai at Gaara with the intent to kill or at least pierce his eyes. It was to no avail though since his sand instantly acted on its own, shielding Gaara from the onslaught of pointy office equipment.

"It's not what you think." Gaara mentally slapped himself after he heard himself say that without thinking. He corrected himself. "There's no reason for me to look at you in a lustful manner. There's nothing to look at anyways." He threw in as a closer in attempt to stop her thoughts about him being a pervert. He got nervous, however, and reached for one of the chocolate chip pancakes to nibble on. Anyone who was close to Gaara would've known that he was nervous but alas, none of his closer people were here.

"Y-you…" Hitomi unconsciously crossed her chest with both of her arms and shook with anger. Her face was flushed with both enragement as well as embarrassment. Gaara eyed the long katana sheathed and strapped at her waist and found himself wondering how long it took her to unsheathe it. "YOU PERVERTED JERK!" She grabbed any and every object that she could get her hands on and threw them with great velocity at Gaara while mouthing out obscenities.

The room door was flung open by several Suna shinobi ready to take down any opposing threat to their village. They stopped short of a few steps into the office when they watched the girl with long brown hair pitch random objects such as pens, jars, and at one point, a pancake at their very own kazekage. They stood and watched the transaction with amazement at her speed and how close she was getting at penetrating Gaara's sand defenses.

"She's even worse than my wife…"

"The kazekage sure did pick the wrong girl to mess with."

"I wonder what he said or did to make her mad."

"Ooh, an affair?"

"Nah. They love each other. I can tell." They practically paused there as an audience to this new sort of entertainment and had they been given popcorn, they would have been gorging on it.

Hitomi swirled her head around and the men could almost swear that she wore the face of a demon. A very pretty demon but a demon no less. She grabbed several nearby books and flung them at the shinobi who all scattered like vultures. The door slammed shut and Hitomi stopped to catch her breath and rest her arms when she heard laughing outside the door.

"…Next thing you know, they'll be having mad sex on his desk." Chuckles could be heard following the line.

'_You really can hear it all perfectly from in here. Those bastards! Who do they think they are to make such accusations about me and Gaara?_' Hitomi opened the door calmly and looked at the men. She found the one that had just been talking and punched his eye. She turned to go back into the office but punched the man's other eye for symmetry. Dusting off her hands, she slammed the door to the office and stood surveying the mess they had just caused.

That's right. The both of them had caused a great mess as the office looked almost like Naruto's room. Pens were sticking out of the wall like throwing knives and there was even a hole in the wall which was caused by a pink eraser that was thrown at such great speed... Papers and books that were once neatly stacked were now laying everywhere in the room in great disarray. There were bouts of sand scattered across the room giving the room an atmosphere similar to the desert, just without the heat.

"You started it." Hitomi pointed at Gaara who called back his sand to reform his gourd that was thrown in the corner. She watched the sand recede towards the sand gourd leaving not even a speck of sand left anywhere. "Wow, fast and easy clean up. You would've made one hell of a janitor."

Gaara ignored this as he looked at the clock on the wall. "Go bother somebody else. I'm late for my meeting with the advisors." He would have given out a sigh but retained his collected manner and walked around the desk, past Hitomi and through the door. Hitomi glanced down at the mess and decided that she didn't want to be in charge of cleanup, so she followed him.

Gaara sat in his usual chair near the advisors and again took a moment to rest before he heard a loud thump beside him. He turned his head and saw Hitomi sitting next to him enjoying the black swivel chair.

"What do you think you're doing here?"

"I told you. Your secretary is on sudden vacation and I'm pitching in."

'_Literally._' He thought back to when one of the pencils nearly got him before his sand could, barely scraping his shoulder and let out a silent groan that was invisible to everyone but him. "This is hell." He muttered and Hitomi flashed him a smile.

'_Not yet._' She thought and pulled a pen out of the jar next to her on the marble table.

Somewhat close to an hour and a half later, Gaara sported a bruise on his arm.

"And that about wraps it up. Meeting adjourned." One of the gruff advisors let out and walked out of the room.

"Huh? We're done already?" Hitomi lifted her head from her hand that held her head up for the past hour. She tossed the pen she had been poking Gaara with for the entire meeting into the jar of pens and stretched.

Gaara tiredly frowned. These meetings were always time when he would pretend that he was listening to the advisors and rest but this week's meeting was horrendously painful for both the soul and his body; particularly his left arm.

He stood and noticed Hitomi following suit. '_Fine. Two can play at this game_.' Gaara walked out of the room with Hitomi practically hanging onto his wrist. He round the corner and entered another room with Hitomi following. He stopped abruptly and the tired Hitomi ran into his back. She didn't step back and Gaara refused to step back and risk showing any fear towards her, leaving both of them still touching. Gaara turned slightly expecting Hitomi to move back but she didn't, causing Gaara to brush his arm against her breast. He wore a faint blush and found himself slightly aroused. Not wanting this to lead to him making a fool out of himself, he pushed Hitomi away.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?" Hitomi snapped out of her tired trance and watched Gaara look away at something.

"You can't follow me in here." He stated and met her eyes with his.

"And why not, pray tell?"

"This is the men's bathroom and unless you got a split second sex change, you're not allowed to come in here. Privacy reasons." '_And I for sure know you're not a man,_' Gaara thought and remembered back to the brushing. He turned and walked away from a silent Hitomi before she could see his slight blush appear once more.

Hitomi sighed and waited right outside the men's bathroom before she got impatient. It had been 15 minutes and she doubted that he could be spending this time freshening up with makeup. '_Geez, eyeliner doesn't take that long to put on_.' Hitomi envisioned Gaara by the mirror applying heavy eyeliner around his eyes and laughed out loud. She caught a man coming back out of the bathroom.

"Excuse me, did you see a red haired man in there by any chance?"

"No, sorry. There was nobody in there but me."

Hitomi took the man's words in and her eyes widened. '_The window!_' She rushed into the bathroom and ignored the crazed looks that the man shot at her. She found the small window at the top open and frowned deeply. 'Damn it!'

Hitomi ran out of the building (through the front door of course. She wouldn't stoop so low as to even consider Gaara's methods of escape) and practically ran all over Suna looking for Gaara.

All afternoon, she asked around for their kazekage but to no avail. Nobody had seen the sly fox. Or rather, raccoon. She was about to ask two old women outside of a restaurant who appeared to be gossiping but stopped short when she heard the words 'very strong shinobi.' Interested, she neared herself to them and eavesdropped on their conversation.

"I've never heard of them."

"Well, they are a group of five very powerful shinobi that were more popular twenty years ago. They disappeared after that though. I heard that they disbanded and scattered. They used to plunder successful villages and stole whatever riches they could find. Used to kill so many people..."

"And you think they're back now?"

"No. I know they're back. This time, though, I heard they're after the legendary Amethyst Moon Gem that belongs to Getsugakure."

"Getsugakure?"

"Yes. The gem is said to multiply the holder's power by tenfold not to mention it's a priceless artifact. If they ever got a hold of it… I shudder to even think about it."

"That all sounds like a bunch of hocus pocus to me."

Hitomi frowned. '_Could such a thing exist? It's just gossip. I'm sure it's all made up._' Her thoughts ended when she spotted red hair across the street in one of the alleyways.

"Hey, wait up!" She dashed towards him and placed her hand on his shoulder to turn him around. He indeed turned around but it wasn't Gaara. This man could be placed in his early twenties with a few scars upon his face. His eyes were a deep blue and Hitomi was hit with familiarity though she couldn't quite put her finger on what or where she had seen him before.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else. Do I know you?"

"I'm afraid not but that's alright. Just watch yourself next time. There are some real creeps out there." Hitomi was not at all comforted but felt threatened by the sound of his tone.

"Alright well, sorry." She started walking away when she heard a gruff from behind her.

"One more thing: never turn your back on someone like that." She stopped and waited for his footsteps to start up the other way before she sighed.

"Creep." She mumbled and took a step looking down at the sand before her head snapped back up in recognition. He was the man in the photo that Gaara had held up for her to see. She had only glanced at it because she was being stubborn but his description matched perfectly. She turned and raced after him. "Stop right there!"

The red haired man turned and frowned before shooting off into a run with Hitomi trailing closely behind. He ran into the crowded market place and flung several baskets of oranges and assortments of fruit before taking off onto a nearby roof. Hitomi was fast though and dodged all of the flying fruit and hopped up onto the roof right after him with no trouble. She chased him for several minutes to a more remote location away from most of the people. She decided to end this and stopped him on a large round roof with sand strewn across and blocked his way by placing herself right in front of him before he leapt off the roof. He was indeed fast but she was even faster.

The man stepped back a few feet and the both of them glared each other down. This time, Hitomi would state his name and make sure that her prey did not escape.

"Satoshi, Ken. You are wanted for countless murders as well as rapes. You're a despicably vile creature that deserves no life. I hereby forfeit your life for Konoha." Hitomi rushed at him with speed and he did the same causing a loud clash that echoed throughout the desert region.

Thus the battle began.

* * *

Author's note:

What will happen?

When will Gaara rape the llama?

… I'm just kidding. Gaara doesn't rape anyone… I don't think. Do you, Gaara?

Gaara: …

Thanks for reading. If you have a few moments to spare out of your day, please review. I appreciate constructive criticism very much so… Just throwing it out there and be honest.


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you oh so much for the splendid reviews. I love you guys. cries You make me so happy.

Masashi Kishimoto created Naruto. He also perfected the creation of Gaara-kun! hugs stuffed Gaara and squeals

* * *

**Chapter 5: Fate's Ugly Reflection**

* * *

The battle had started not anymore than 5 minutes ago and now both Hitomi and Ken sported several bruises and a few minor cuts. Nothing deep yet though.

Hitomi ran at Ken with her katana but was blocked by his own sword instantly. '_This is getting nowhere. If steel doesn't cut it then maybe fists will!_' She spun her katana quickly around his sword and locked it on before she flung it out to the side where both of them could not reach it.

"Heard you're better with taijutsu anyway." She said and raised her fists in a fighting position.

"Yeah. You any good?" His lips curled up.

"Only one of the best."

"Good. I haven't had an interesting fight in a while. Entertain me." He got into a similar fighting stance as Hitomi and shot forward with the first move.

His speed was superb as he whipped the flat of his hand towards her neck like a knife but her speed was just as good if not better. Several punches were thrown before Ken cozened Hitomi into thinking that he was about to punch her stomach. Hitomi flew her hands down to stop the blow to her stomach but left her upper body wide open.

Light aquamarine eyes laced in smoldering black narrowed and allowed Gaara's body to cringe as he watched from the next lower roof top over, concealed in the shadows.

"Man, you're old! I thought you were supposed to be 20?" Hitomi squinted at him.

"I am 20, you fool! I ain't old!" Ken formed several good sized anger veins on his forehead.

"You sure don't fight it…" Hitomi shook her head in mock disappointment and Ken gained even more veins.

Ken's palm had been bolstered with a good amount of chakra similar to the Hyuuga clan's technique and hit Hitomi. Luckily, she moved slightly so that the palm missed her heart but instead, it hit her shoulder with such an extreme blow that it deeply cut her flesh. Hitomi ducked and landed a sweep kick on Ken, causing him to topple over. She hopped back a few feet to clutch her bloody shoulder with her other hand and gritted her teeth. Her arm could barely move now without a sharp stab of pain rippling through her arm and chest.

"What's this? I thought you said you were good. Seems you're all talk." Ken stood and dashed at her once more while she was in a weakened state.

'_I need to heal myself but I need time. I'll need to stop him and fast._' She started making hand signs with amazing speed, ignoring the shooting pain in her shoulder. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!"

Ken stopped short of a few feet near her and noticed her moving hands. With agility, he jumped back and watched six other hunter-nin girl clones scatter around him in a circle. He was planning on attacking them all at the same time with a fire jutsu and didn't notice the real hunter-nin form even more hand signs. By the time he noticed, it was too late. Puffs of smoke enclosed around the clones and he coughed as the smoke clouded up his vision and lungs.

'_Now's the time._' Hitomi thought and used her chakra to heal her shoulder while the missing-nin was enclosed in smoke.

'_What'd the damned girl do?_' Ken Satoshi thought as the smoke cleared away to reveal six clones of naked Hitomis' with only clouds blocking out the vital womanly parts. The man fell back on his head with a major nosebleed.

'_Baka!_' Gaara thought as he turned his head away with a blush though keeping his eyes on the real Hitomi. He fought the urge to peek at just one of the many nude clones of Hitomi. '_Am I really such a pervert?_' Was his last thought before he heard Hitomi's voice ring out and his eyes shot back to Hitomi. Apparently, his eyes had betrayed him and rested on the clones instead while he was thinking.

"Like it? It's called harem no jutsu. I've just recently perfected it, courtesy of Uzumaki, Naruto." Hitomi smiled and set her hand next to her body. Her shoulder was now completely healed. She allowed the nude clones and clouds to disappear in a poof of smoke before putting herself in another fighting stance.

Ken pulled himself off the ground and wiped at his nosebleed with his arm. He barely managed to blink before he was knocked back to the edge of the roof with a powerful turned air side kick to his chest. This time, he never managed to pull himself up as Hitomi grabbed onto the collar of his shirt and threw his body high into the air. She crouched on the roof and quickly shot off up into the air after him and managed to beat him into the air. She twisted her body around and kicked his stomach, sending him shooting towards the roof at such a speed that he wasn't even able to defend himself. His body landed face down and Hitomi landed gracefully just a couple feet away with barely a sound.

With great difficulty, Ken got up on his knees as Hitomi rushed at him and delivered a punch to his eye knocking him a few yards back towards the middle of the roof.

"That one there was for having the same hair color as Gaara and forcing me to stay in Suna with him to search for you."

From the next rooftop over, Gaara glared at Hitomi's back. '_I bet it wasn't as hellish for you as it was for me._' He thought.

Hitomi raised her right fist into the air and started to run towards Ken aiming for his mouth this time. "And this one is for making me delay my promise to otou-san and Tsunade-sama!" She managed to get two feet away from him before she was stopped by something at her feet. She glanced down at Ken's hands and found that she had missed seeing him form the hand seals for the jutsu. Her brown eyes traveled down to her legs to find that large blue and purple colored crystals had formed around her legs all the way up to the middle of her thighs before they stopped.

It was to no avail as she tried wiggling free and even grabbing one of her kunai to stab at the hard-formed crystal. As beautiful as it was, it was a real nuisance to have her legs stuck and unable to move.

Hitomi felt the presence of Ken nearing and without looking up, pulled out several dozen senbon needles dipped in a powerful poison with ingredients passed down from generation to generation through the Kasumi line. She quickly lobbed the needles towards her target after she frowned when she watched him make rapid hand seals. The senbon needles drew closer at unbelievable speed and seemingly made it to Ken yet they were stopped in midair at the last second by some force.

"Kagami no jutsu!" The needles shook in the air and multiplied into many more poisonous needles. They finally stopped shaking but suddenly shot backwards with twice the power and speed of before heading straight for Hitomi.

Hitomi clenched her jaw and fisted her hands. She was unable to move and didn't have a strong enough defense that was as fast or could cover a wide range to save herself. She crossed her arms throwing them in front of her, not daring to look, and instead preferring the black comfort of not seeing or knowing. She could hear the whistling of the needles spelling out her impending doom. She heard a sound of metal meeting a solid and almost let out a whimper. '_Am I dead?_' Her thoughts were interrupted by a voice she never thought she'd ever be happy hearing until now. Hitomi looked up and found herself engulfed in a thick barrier of sand.

"I thought you were stronger than that but apparently, I was wrong." She looked over her shoulder at the lovely red hair and the aquamarine eyes surrounded by the undeniably sexy black outlines. For a second, she thought she had fallen in love but quickly recovered and banished all thoughts of the sort.

"Yeah? Well, you were wrong on many counts."

Gaara let down his barrier of sand and stepped up between Hitomi and the missing-nin. '_Still sassy as usual. It seems nothing can penetrate that attitude._' He thought to himself and bid his sand forward to crush the missing-nin.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? He's my job. I'm going to be the one to kill him!" Hitomi yelled and tried to struggle her way out of the crystals.

"However, it seems you are incapable at this moment to do anything but stand idly by and watch a real ninja complete a mission." Gaara had his hand out with his sand still chasing after Ken.

"What?! What are you trying to say? I am a real ninja!" She watched as Gaara's sand slithered itself around her mission's body and commence squeezing. "Let him go! I can kill him myself! Stop it!" Hitomi screamed at Gaara but it was a waste of breath as a sudden torrent of orange fire encompassed the sand-eaten man and instantly turned the sand to a hard shiny substance. "Glass?" She scrunched her face up in such awe at the beautiful product of sand and fire that she had almost missed the man escape with a leap up into the air.

"You kids shouldn't play with fire. It's dangerous." A cackle could be heard even after his body disappeared into a wave of fire in the air.

"Genjutsu?"

"No, a high-leveled fire flicker jutsu." Gaara deducted and laid his remaining sand back to rest on the grounds of the desert. Hitomi almost nodded in agreement but instead, snapped at Gaara.

"Nobody asked you." She glared at the back of Gaara's back. "How could you do that? I told you to stop. If you'd just left us alone, I would've killed him. It's like you want me to stay and be miserable or something." She spat out not really meaning it but got caught up in the heat of the moment.

"You can't handle him." Gaara's words slapped Hitomi and she was now enraged though she had started the dispute.

"I can handle him much better than you can! It's my job! Why don't you just mind your own business?" Gaara turned to face Hitomi, feeling the glare on the back of his head.

"You were being too noisy. I couldn't concentrate." He tried to keep his cool and resisted the temptation to snap back and crush her with sand. Hitomi glanced down towards the roof and it finally hit her that she had been fighting on the roof of the Kazekage's office.

"Well, if you seriously need to think about how to sign a paper then maybe you aren't such a good kazekage as you think you are." Hitomi could practically hear her conscience cursing at her to stop but she couldn't. She was hurt and remembered all those times in her childhood when she was made fun of for being weak. Nobody had ever put their trust or faith into Hitomi believing that she was too slow and weak to be a ninja. This was why she had devoted herself into being the best ninja in both speed and strength.

Gaara didn't reply but kept his eyes locked onto Hitomi's allowing her to say more. Hitomi took a breath to calm herself and looked away crossing her arms stubbornly.

"Whatever. Just don't interfere next time. I don't need you." Her eyes closed as she sensed Gaara disappearing in a whirl of sand. She frowned inwardly at herself cursing her stubborn nature. She realized that she still did not have a strong enough jutsu to break the crystals without crushing her legs in the process and growled to herself even more.

"Fine! I don't need you anyway!" She stood for a few minutes in the sun before she gave up. "Okay, maybe I do need you. But only for this one time. Now please release me! GAAARAA! Come back here!" She yelled into the late afternoon sun.

* * *

After several hours under the beating rays of the sun, Hitomi still stood on the kazekage roof embedded in the large crystals. Her tired arms finally lowered and she let go of the tiresome jutsu that allowed her an umbrella-like shade from the desert sun. Her skin, however, was a couple degrees tanner because of the roof's ability to reflect a small amount of sun. But now that the sun was finally down, Hitomi felt the sudden chill of the night. She was exhausted and dehydrated.

Several times throughout the day, she had thought she'd seen Gaara but each time, he was just a figment of her hallucination due to the blistering heat. Her posture was slumped and her eyes were closed. Another cold wind swept by and her skin formed goosebumps. She couldn't think straight but kept on cursing the being of Gaara.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." She opened her eyes to the familiar form of the young kazekage. "But of course you're just another mirage, aren't you? Haha…" Hitomi sneezed from the cold and allowed her eyes to droop.

'_Did I really leave her out that long?_' Gaara frowned slightly and stepped forwards to stand right in front of her. He had his sand wrap around the large crystals framing her legs, applying pressure to carefully and softly implode the crystals with the sand leaving her legs unscathed. He let his sand blow away with the wind but not before he noticed Hitomi fall towards him. His arms instantly shot out to catch her.

With Hitomi's head on Gaara's chest, she looked up into his eyes and smiled still not thinking right.

"You're just another hallucination, aren't you? Gaara would never come back to help me." She kept her smile but slid her hands up to rest upon his shoulders in attempt to get closer to his warmth.

"I'm not a hallucination. You're just dehydrated." Gaara deepened his frown. '_I knew I should've skipped that last meeting to check up on her but it was urgent… I should get her back immediately. It seems her brain's been fried by the sun…_" He led his hands to grasp her bent elbows but was stopped by Hitomi before he could take her back home.

"Hey, hallucinations shouldn't talk back like that."

"I'm not a-" He reasoned but Hitomi didn't listen. Instead she slid her hands up to the back of his head and pushed him down. The move was so sudden and surprising that Gaara didn't even have time to think before he found his face very close to hers. His eyes briefly glanced down at her lips.

"I told you not to… talk… You…. jerk…" Hitomi's lips drew dangerously close to Gaara's before her eyes closed and she fell limp in Gaara's arms. Her head fell into his neck and Gaara wound his arms around her upper waist to hold her up.

Gaara tilted her upper body a little away from him and allowed his eyes to scan Hitomi's beautiful facial features. His eyes traveled lower to the slight cleavage of her breasts. He held Hitomi up with one arm around her back and released the other hand to hover over her breasts. His hand grabbed at the chained key and held it up to his eyes. He read the scripture on the back of the key's hold over and over again. This memory that had long been buried deep within his memories as just a trick reemerged.

Gaara held Hitomi's arm over his shoulder ad made his way home. His mind kept picturing the message on the key as he looked down upon Hitomi's face once more. The message was not what he had been expecting at all. He couldn't get the words out of his head as he leapt from roof to roof towards his home.

'_Hitomi & Arata.'_

* * *

_Author's Note:_

_So who is this Arata?_

_Yeah, the ending to this chapter changed. It would've ended up the same eventually but I decided that this way, I wouldn't have to go through as much of a hassle._


	6. Chapter 6

Me? Create Naruto? Nah. I wish but not all wishes come true…

Thanks for the reviews! Enjoy!

(QUESTIONS: Ah yes and by the way… I'm sure next to all of you are wondering :why can't Hitomi remember Gaara? It's so painstakingly obvious! Please don't be alarmed as your main character is not a ditz. I repeat: She is not a ditz. Her actions are kind of questionable, but she's not a ditz. You'll see later.

The following question after that would probably be: Then how could she not remember? This, ladies and gentlemen, happens to be briefed on in this chapter. Well, at least hinted of it… Now be a good student and READ!

* * *

**Chapter 6: Lullaby of the Heart's Ghost**

* * *

Soft snoring could be heard from Hitomi on the couch of the kazekage residence before it was rudely interrupted by a slam of the entrance door.

"Hitomi! Wake up!" Temari's shout caused Hitomi to open her eyes a crack before she turned on the couch burying her head into the pillows.

"Mmm, it's not morning yet. Just a bit longer, Temari."

"Get up! We're under attack!" Temari flew herself up the stairs searching for more weapons frantically.

"What?!" Hitomi flung her blankets off of her body and jumped from the couch in alarm. She did not think to change out of her pajamas: a simple white low-cut tank top and black shorts. Instead, she grabbed her katana lying beside the couch and raced to the outside of the warm house.

Once outside, she could hear clangs of metal upon metal and even metal upon flesh. Everything moved at such a high pace to the half sleeping Hitomi. She had only gotten a few hours of sleep after she awoke finding herself on the couch with at least two dozen bottles of water beside her on the coffee table. Temari as well as Kankurou kept trying to hydrate Hitomi with practically 3 bottles per minute (saying something about a favor and somebody high owing them something) until Hitomi could practically be dubbed as Kirigakure

It wasn't until a kunai had nearly sliced her leg that she snapped to full attention and growled.

"Hey, watch it! That could've hurt!" She got into a fighting position and quickly took in her current surroundings. The sun had not come up yet but the sky was turning a light blue in the East. There were no villagers outside nor were any windows or doors open. There were only just a couple of opposing ninja against several more Suna shinobi but they compensated with strength and agility. Several houses away on the light brown roof of a fancy restaurant stood a nonchalant Gaara. Hitomi noticed his dark flaming red hair was unruly as usual and his face was at a slight scowl possibly at the frustration of not being able to pin his opponent down with sand fast enough to move onto the next attacking shinobi.

She sensed several shuriken coming her way and snapped herself out of her trance, managing to dodge the shuriken by jumping to the right. She then shot forward towards the attacker with her fist charged with a vast amount of charka. It was only a little trick she had learned from Tsunade in her previous years.

Her opponent jumped just in time before her fist connected. Hitomi's punch hit the ground of sand and left quite the large indent surprising her opponent so much that she thought she heard a curse. She turned towards the man covered in black ninja attire from head to toe, leaving only his eyes and short slanted black hair that reminded Hitomi of Kakashi. Hitomi noticed that he had stopped in his tracks and was surveying Hitomi.

'_No, not surveying. He's checking me out!_' She clenched her fist in annoyance and remembered her current dress state when she heard a wolf whistle from him.

"Hey, loser! Mind telling me why you and your buddies are attacking Suna?"

"Well, aren't you quite the uninformed lady. If you have the brains and the will to live then I suggest you hand over what we want: the Amethyst Moon Gem of-"

"Getsugakure." Hitomi finished for him. She could tell that he was smiling behind his mask.

"Indeed. Looks like you're as smart as you are pretty."

"Flattery will get you nowhere near that gem."

"Ah well," the ninja raised his hands in an I-give-up posture and shook his head. "It was worth a try. But you know what they say, if it doesn't work the first time, try and try again."

"That's lame. You'll never get the gem nor will you ever get a girl."

"That's alright, we'll get the gem sooner or later and as for the girl… I don't want one. What I want is a woman and there just happens to be a beautiful one standing right in front of me." The man gave another obvious look-over of Hitomi to which she attained an anger vein on her forehead.

By now, Gaara had temporarily disposed of his opponent and caught the last portion of Hitomi's conversation with the attacking ninja. He thought the man was a fool yet was struck with annoyance. How dare this mysterious ninja speak to Hitomi in such a way?

"Fool." Was all that Hitomi heard before an interesting wall of sand slammed into the man. The man's body was instantly replaced by the substitution jutsu of some sort. Instead of the normal log, sand, water, or even fire, the man's false being dispersed into many faint blue orbs with a crystal glow. These spheres floated upwards towards the pink sky with the rising sun and disappeared into the air, leaving no trace.

"What..!" Hitomi gasped.

"What is it?" The former man's voice resounded everywhere around Hitomi and Gaara. The man gave a low chuckle when he watched Hitomi's eyes scan her surroundings for him. "They don't call us the five ghost shinobi for nothing you know."

'_I don't get it. How was that jutsu possible? In order to initiate the kamawari jutsu, you need something replaceable that is able to retain a figure. Using fire is already pushing it, but what were those spheres of light? Whatever they are, they can't possibly be enough to retain a figure._' Hitomi thought to herself. She almost missed one of the other 'ghost' shinobi giving orders to fall back for some reason.

"It seems I must leave. Until next time." The man's voice spoke around Hitomi and Gaara.

"If there even is a next time."

"Oh, but there will be. I'm sure of it, my love." The man's all-around presence disappeared leaving Hitomi a bit creeped-out and Gaara a bit angry. All other three 'ghost' shinobi were fleeing in scattered directions; one of them carrying the unconscious shinobi previously injured by none other than Gaara.

One of the fleeing shinobi, however, swiftly turned and threw a bomb-tagged kunai directly at Hitomi. She took note that the ninja's hand was gloveless but pushed it out of her mind for now. Hitomi was about to toss a kunai of her own to cancel out the incoming kunai and blow it up in the air, but somebody beat her to it. A silver kunai was thrown forward and deflected the incoming kunai, setting off the bomb high in the air.

Hitomi swung her head around towards the shinobi that had thrown the silver kunai. It appeared to be the ghost shinobi leader with the unconscious one tossed over his shoulder. The leader stared back at Hitomi before he disappeared into the air with a shimmer.

* * *

"Help the shinobi with village repairs. There's damage recorded in the Southeast part of Suna. You've been assigned to lead that part's reconstruction." Gaara ordered Hitomi. Those five ghost shinobi had been nearly vacant in numbers but made up in strength. Nearly a quarter of Suna was severely damaged with powerful ninjutsu. Many of the sand houses were destroyed or stood crumbling. A total of 9 deaths and 17 injured people had been the outcome.

"Understood." Hitomi used the body flicker jutsu to transport herself quickly from the kazekage's office to her designated location. Once she arrived, she immediately started to work on putting Suna back together again under the scorching afternoon sun.

It wasn't until around 7 that evening that Hitomi and the workers assigned under her were finally finished with all of the repairs. '_This has been one hell of a rigorous training session. Lee and Gai-sensei would be proud._' Hitomi smiled as she sat on the edge of the roof.

"Yo! Lets go get dinner." Hitomi looked down at Kankurou and Temari waiting for her.

"Okay!" Hitomi hopped down from the ledge and joined both Temari and Kankurou in walking towards the restaurant as a break from the day's toil. Once they got to the fancy restaurant, all three of them were surprised when the waiter told them that they already had a table reserved and paid for.

"But who paid?" Temari asked but followed the waiter towards their table nonetheless. When they arrived at the table placed in its own isolated room with doors and walls, they found a certain Kazekage with tousled red hair looking through a menu.

The three of them stared at the young kazekage. Temari seated her self next to Gaara at the round table lit with several violet candles in the middle. "What are you doing here?"

"Can't I eat at a nice restaurant?" Gaara said without even looking up from the menu.

"Y-yeah, but you never pay." Kankurou sat down across from Gaara at the round table purposely to force Hitomi next to Gaara. "Come sit down Hitomi." He pat her seat.

Hitomi stared at Kankurou as he was smiling and wondered what this was all about. She gave a questioning look to Kankurou to which he responded.

"Don't worry. We know all about your relationship. We're very happy for you two." Kankurou closed his eyes and nodded in agreement with himself.

"What… relationship?" Hitomi asked carefully.

Gaara looked on towards Kankurou and wondered that same thing. _'What is he up to?'_

"Ah, no need to hide it guys. It's obvious. We saw that little hug yesterday." Kankurou explained.

Gaara eyes widened in alarm and he instantly hid his face in his menu.Temari watched Hitomi's face get even more confused. She elbowed Kankurou before he could continue. Hitomi contorted her face in suspicion.

"What… hug..?" She stared Kankurou down wanting an answer. Kankurou averted his eyes away from Hitomi as well as Temari.

'_Man, me and my big mouth. I don't get it. What is it with women_?' He thought as sweat trickled down his face. '_Temari or Hitomi. Either way, I'm just going to get beaten to death… Unless…_' Kankurou returned his eyes to Hitomi's face. "Oh. I guess I must have mistaken someone for you. I just thought I saw Gaara hugging a girl with brown hair and thought it was you."

"Well, for the record, not all girls with brown hair are me so watch it." She snapped at Kankurou. She didn't mean to sound so rude but for some reason unknown to her, she felt threatened after Kankurou said Gaara was caught kissing someone. _'Did Gaara really kiss someone else? Who? When? And why do I care so much? It's his personal life and I should respect it. But, could I have possibly developed feelings for him? Hah, what a joke. If anything, this is just an infatuation with his physical appearance.' _She sat down next to Gaara wearing a confused expression.

Temari had watched all of the emotions playing across Hitomi's face. She wanted to kill Kankurou, but on the other hand perhaps her middle brother had finally done something right for once. She smiled to herself and ordered.

"By the way, what's going to happen with the Ayako festival? It was supposed to be tomorrow, but with the village in the current state…" Hitomi asked Gaara.

"The festival will be moved back for at least another month."

"Oh, I see."

"Why? Did you want to go?" Temari inquired.

"Yes, but not to the festival itself. Satoshi was originally supposed to show up at the festival."

"But he appeared earlier instead, didn't he?"

"Yes. We fought yesterday, but I couldn't catch him. I didn't even have my mask on, so now he's seen my face."

"You should be taken off the mission."

"No!" Hitomi answered sharply. "This is my first mission and I made a promise to complete it. So please don't tell Hokage-sama."

"Do you know where to find Satoshi now?"

"No. Other than the Ayako festival tip, there was no other information on where he could be, so I'll just have to search for him."

"I see."

"…" Gaara closed his menu.

"It looks like your mission is going to drag on for longer than expected then." Kankurou joined in.

"Yeah. But I'll find him soon."

After dinner, they left the restaurant and were currently walking out of the restaurant when Gaara slowed his pace.

"I need to speak with you." Gaara spoke to Hitomi.

"I have something to discuss with you too." She nodded.

"Oh! Well, Kankurou and I are dead tired so we're going home. You two go back to the office to discuss your business. Be home at a reasonable time and stay _safe_!" Temari put emphasis on 'safe' and grabbed Kankurou's shirt collar dragging him away quickly.

"Why do I get the feeling that what she said had a double meaning?" Hitomi muttered to herself.

Gaara heard her but decided to stay quiet. The both of them walked to the Kazekage office in silence. Upon arrival, Gaara opened the door for Hitomi and locked the door once they were inside.

'_Now that's just creepy. He suddenly gets a nice streak and opens the door for me? And he locked the door… Oh my god_.' Hitomi started to panic. '_I've read all about this kind of thing. If I'm correct, then in a few moments I will be flung to the ground and he will have his way with me but he won't! Because I can fight back!' _She kept her hand near the hilt of her katana and eyed Gaara warily as he made his way towards his desk and sat down.

"Now what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" Gaara rested his hands near his mouth.

_'Oh, never mind then. I guess I was completely off and. Damn, why didn't he do it?_' She instantly slapped her self in her mind when she realized what she had just thought. '_Bad Hitomi! Dirty Hitomi!_' She quickly shook her head of all thoughts and remembered what she had come here to talk about.

"As you very well know, my mission here in Suna was to kill the labeled missing-nin: Satoshi, Ken. He has more than likely relocated to a different vicinity and it's my given job as hunter-nin to track my mission and eliminate him." Hitomi said seriously. Gaara knew what she was trying to get at and didn't want her to say it. Though he felt no rise of panic, he was still concerned. "That is why; I have to leave Suna tonight."

Before Gaara could think, he stood up and followed in the footsteps of the scene from his memory.

"Why? Stay. Please. Stay with…" Gaara caught himself in time.

However, this was all that Hitomi needed to hear before her mind lapsed into a painful state. More blurred images filled her mind but this time they came at a slower pace. She saw sand mixed with red and black swirled with a light blue. A small childish voice called out to her. _'Forever. Hitomi-hime. …I promise… Why? Stay with me forever…_' One by one, small cut scenes with the same childish voice overlapped each other. The pain was unbearable and Hitomi crumbled to the floor clutching her head. Suddenly, another image sliced through the previous ones but this time, the child's voice was gone. Instead it was replaced by a cold voice. '_Don't want you near it… It's for the best…_' Another familiar voice interjected the cold voice. She recognized it as her own. '_Stop! What are you doing…!_' The images blurred back to the previous ones of sand, red and black. '_Marry me… Keeping the key… Lullaby._' Then all at once, every single voice from before started to talk at once with loud familiar screams and the pounding in her head gave one last lash at her.

Hitomi woke back up to the real world with a silent scream. The images were gone and the voices had disappeared all at once. She was panting hard and forced her eyes open. She was not, though, in her fully coherent state due to the after shock of her mind's events.

When her mind finally caught up with her, she noticed that she was on the floor but her body was leaning against something hard. There were also two arms encompassing her body. For a moment, she felt disoriented and looked for a face on this intruder of space.

Gaara's eyes stared back down at her but they were different somehow. Was there a hint of concern in his eyes? Hitomi found herself feeling blissful before she realized her current predicament in his arms. '_Which happen to be very strong…_' Hitomi found herself thinking that other way again and cursed before she flung herself out of his arms and across the room. '_What happened? It's just like before but more hardcore this time. I don't get it. These "visions" never happened until after I came back to Suna. Maybe something happened here once? Did I forget? No. I remember everything. Otou-san took me here to stay for a week and he got mad when I lost the music box that Kaa-san made so he grounded me for my entire stay. I even remember how much it depressed me_.'

"What do you think you're doing? I never would have pinned you for one that would molest a girl while she was unconscious. Have you no honor?" Hitomi knew it was not true and that he was only trying to help but she could never help but put herself in these situations. She often times enjoyed to annoy people and start fights. It was part of her nature.

"I thought you already pinned me as a pervert. Raping you while you're knocked out would be no big deal." Gaara glared as he watched the ball volley its way into her court.

"What?! Want to say that again?!" Hitomi shook her fist at Gaara and glared.

"You heard me. There is no need to repeat myself." Gaara turned his back on Hitomi and looked outside the window.

"You..! Argh. I'm leaving. I have all of my stuff packed. If we're lucky, we'll never see each other again. Farewell, Kazekage-sama." Hitomi turned from Gaara as well and made her way to the door. She was just about to open it when she heard Gaara's voice.

"Have you ever heard of the legendary Amethyst Moon gem before?" His back was still turned to her. She frowned. What did he want from her?

"I heard that it increases the holder's power by tenfold and that the ghost shinobi are after it." Her voice in calm mode once more.

"They say that the gem has the power to grant the holder virtually a limitless amount of chakra and their physical power will indeed increase by tenfold. As great as it may be, its power will eventually drive the user mad and slowly suck their soul into the stone. Legend has it that there are next to a thousand souls in the stone."

"What's this got to do with me?" Gaara paused at Hitomi's interruption but ignored her and kept on going.

"However, there is also a legend that the gem was supposed to be guarded by each female generation in the Arima clan from Getsugakure."

"And what's this have to do with me?" She repeated. Gaara turned and slid a file across his desk towards Hitomi. She glanced at him before she looked through the file. It held several papers, one of which was a birth certificate that was frayed at the edges by fire. Her eyes shot back up at Gaara.

"What are you trying to say?" She stayed silent expecting Gaara to explain everything.

"I have a feeling that you've never gotten a chance to see this file."

"No, I haven't." Hitomi's lips pursed into a fine line and her brows knit together.

"You're not curious?" Gaara motioned at the file giving her permission to further read.

"…I am." She continued reading the certificate belonging to her dead mother… A whisper of her name left Hitomi's lips.

"Arima, Yasuko."


	7. Chapter 7

If only I were the owner of the Naruto series and the characters. Gaara would be the main star and we would be married. Riiight, Gaara? squeezes the life out of a Gaara squeaky plushie

And thus, the story continues.

* * *

**Chapter 7: The Past and the Art of Flying In**

* * *

"I am not taking responsibility over this rock. I don't even have a clue as to where it is." Hitomi argued as she tossed her mother's records onto the desk but not before hesitating.

"I know where it is." Hitomi raised an eyebrow at Gaara. "It is currently being held by your great aunt. She just so happens to be passing through Suna which explains why the ghost shinobi were attacking us. Also, I suspect, that is the reason why the Hokage sent you on this particular mission. The ghost shinobi did not manage to steal the gem yesterday. However, they did manage to claim her son."

Hitomi was very surprised. She had no clue that she still had any other family but her father. As curious as she was, she did not want to see her mother's family. She had abandoned Hitomi and her father and had gotten herself killed long ago.

"That doesn't make sense. If the gem were so important then why would they travel alone through Suna?"

"They didn't. They have a total of 20 guards traveling with them but it doesn't seem to be enough. They've already arranged to meet you tomorrow at noon regarding the protection of the stone." Gaara droned in a serious tone.

"Well, that's too bad because I don't want to see them nor do I want anything to do with some rock. In case you haven't noticed, I still have a mission to complete and Konoha needs me to report back. Just because I've been helping you guys out and living in Suna for half a week doesn't mean that I am a Suna citizen. This doesn't involve me."

"It's your mission."

"What are you talking about?"

"The Ayako festival this year was supposed to host the passing of the gem down the lineage of the Arima family."

"Don't tell me... This mission is not going how I planned."

"Missing-nin missions usually never do."

"So what? Now that the Arima lady's son is kidnapped, the rock can't be passed down. Still has nothing to do with me. I should be out tracking down Satoshi before he comes back for the rock."

"No. Part of your mission now is to protect the gem. Satoshi as well as the four other ghost shinobi should be back to steal it before if not during the Ayako festival. You can act then."

"Ayako festival? But I thought her son was kidnapped."

"He is."

"Then…"

"You. It will be passed to you."

"Absolutely not. I don't want it. Any of it."

"It's your mission. Meet with them tomorrow."

"No. The only family I will visit is my Otou-san. I refuse to dip my hand into this situation when I have greater responsibilities right now."

"Your greatest responsibility is to guard the Moon Gem." Gaara watched as Hitomi rolled her eyes and turned away from him towards the door.

"My greatest responsibility right now is to report back to Tsunade-sama."

"You can't leave."

"Just watch me." Hitomi turned the door knob but the door would not open. "It's locked."

"You cannot leave until I say you can." For a moment, he felt as if he could keep Hitomi as there forever. He wanted to. He had let her escape once in their childhood and now she had come back.

Was this not planned out by the fates? As childish as he knew his thoughts were, he couldn't help but feel that if he held her there then it would make up for the night when she left him. The night that he needed her most. The night that Yashamaru had lied to him, telling him that Hitomi had been but a pawn controlled by his own father to weaken Gaara. The night that Gaara had carved out the kanji for love on his forehead with his own sand, banishing all and any thoughts of love. The night that he had felt nothing but hatred towards Hitomi's memory.

It had been several years later at the Chuunin exams when Naruto had knocked some sense into him that he started to open himself. He decided to forget ever meeting Hitomi.

It had been even more years after that when he had become Kazekage of his village that he had started to seemingly hallucinate a young version of Hitomi. Her image had followed him everywhere like a ghost and even when he closed his eyes to rest, there she was. Just standing silently with a smile. Gaara would always send his sand barreling after her image only for it to pass through her body. He would continue to ignore her even after Shukaku had been extracted from his body. He had even tried to sleep once only to be terrorized by memories of Hitomi in the park with him as a child. He found the prospect of sleep unbearable since it had somehow made him even more tired than he ever was before and stayed as he did when he had Shukaku within him; he slept not a wink. He hated seeing the girl. All those years, he had lived hating her and her lies.

One day, he found himself walking past the old park when he noticed a transparent image of a girl in a flowing white dress stand near the swings with an outstretched hand as if she had been waiting for him. It was the last straw and he went back to his new office that held files on every single person living or had once lived in Suna. It was then that he found that Yashamaru had lied to him even to the very end. Hitomi's slate was clean. She had made up no lies. No false promises yet he had taken his uncle's words to be the truth even when he betrayed Gaara and hated Hitomi with his very being.

It was tragic when the new kazekage had slumped down in his chair with his eyes clenched shut in silent apology. He had been the fool all along… Gaara remembered those many moments when he finally heard the feminine voice call out in the background of his thoughts.

"Gaara? Hello? It's locked. I need to go. You can't keep me here forever." At this, Gaara snapped his eyes back open.

"Yes I can." He had automatically responded. He knew it wasn't fair to Hitomi that he was treating her like his old teddy bear but he just didn't want to lose her again.

"You can't keep someone locked forever. They'll end up hating you." She watched as Gaara reluctantly walked over to unlock the door without a word or putting up some kind of defense. '_What wrong with him?_' She though. "Are you okay? You gave up pretty easily. I thought you were an ass 24/7."

Hitomi got no response from the young kazekage. Instead, Gaara turned his back to her and stared out of his window, overlooking all of Suna once more. She stood silently staring after Gaara.

"Leave." The cold word was spoken in the familiar strange darkly silky voice of Gaara. He frowned reviewing quickly all of the reasons why he could not keep her there forever like he had wanted. She was Konoha's kunoichi after all. Had she been a kunoichi of Suna, he would have less important reasons. Reasons concerning morality and sensibility.

Hitomi gave one last glance at Gaara before turning to leave.

"I guess this is good-bye then, kazekage-sama." She silently shut the door behind her, leaving the red-headed kazekage to fight back a sorrowful sigh before the door swung back open.

"Don't forget me though." Hitomi frowned. "I'll be back soon. To visit Temari and Kankurou… And you."

Gaara stared at Hitomi. She scowled in response.

"But only to bug you some more! So… Expect me sometime." She gave a half smile, deciding to leave Suna on a good note with everyone despite the tension.

She left the kazekage building, rounding back to her temporary home in Suna. After receiving hugs from Temari and Kankurou, she left with her traveling bag and a sense of happiness in friendship. However, she felt somewhat disappointed that Gaara did not stop her from leaving again. '_But after all, why would he care?_' Something in her own heart told her the opposite; that he did care but of course, being Hitomi, she would never trust her god-given intuition.

She could feel her heart growing heavier as she neared the gates leading out of Suna. She had a strong urge to turn around and announce that she wanted to become a resident or Suna and stay with Temari and that silly puppeteer. Even she admitted to herself that Gaara would be another factor to stay. But, she had to remember her dear otou-san, her allegiance to Konoha and her loyalty towards her many friends.

She let out an exasperated sigh when she stopped to give the guard her papers. While the guard was scanning over her papers, she heard a slightly raspy voice speak from right next to her.

"I'm here to see the kazekage–sama and give out a mission." Hitomi raised her dark brown eyes towards the man beside her and a big smile crept onto her face.

"Naruto! What are you doing here?" She asked in confusion.

"Didn't you just hear what I said?" The boy with spiky blonde hair turned and grinned.

"Well, any specifics?"

"Actually, yeah. Tsunade sent me to give you your next mission."

'_Should I tell him that I haven't completed my first mission even?_' Hitomi thought grimly but maintained the smile. "Well what is it?"

"She said you're supposed to stay here and investigate some gem or whatever. I have the letter but we need to see Gaara and talk to him about it."

Hitomi knit her brow together. '_It's about that gem again. Why the hell is it so important? And why did Naruto speak about Gaara so informally_?'

"Naruto, are you and Gaara friends?" Naruto looked surprised for a second.

"I thought you already knew."

"Why yes, Naruto. I can read minds like a book and forecast the weather even better than the weatherman around these parts." She watched Naruto blanch at her sarcasm and rolled her eyes.

"Well anyways, off to visit Gaara then." Naruto looked over at Hitomi to find that she had a shadow cast over her eyes. Her body was shaking and Naruto found himself wondering what Gaara did to make her so scared. His thoughts were interrupted by a yell.

"YES! A partner in crime to ruin Gaara and bring about his utter demise! Ahahahaha!" Hitomi maniacal laughter was loud and was accompanied by the clawing motion with her hands.

Naruto started backing away from her and walked quickly towards the Kazekage's office with his eyes shut, making his appearance similar to that of a fox's. '_Maybe she's not scared of him after all. Just a little… crazy about him?_' Naruto opened one of his eyes and started laughing. '_What possessed me to think that just now? Imagine Hitomi falling in love with someone. Now THAT is crazy. She and Gaara together would be insane._' He continued laughing as an image of Hitomi and Gaara making out popped into his mind. "Only when Suna is covered with flowers will that ever happen."

"What will?" By now Hitomi had caught up and was walking casually beside Naruto as if nothing happened.

"Eh, nothing." Naruto closed both of his eyes again with a grin and his hands behind his head in a relaxed manner.

Sometimes, Hitomi could almost swear that he had the spirit of a fox inside his body instead of a human. She took Naruto's example and grinned. She could never be sad in his presence. Hitomi often found herself looking up to Naruto as a friend, a rival, and a brother.

She remembered meeting Naruto. Since the very first day she moved to Konoha, she could always see the blond jumping everywhere around the village. She'd always see him laughing and pointing at inanimate objects declaring himself as future hokage. The sight of him back then had lifted her after her odd time of depression.

Hitomi glanced at Naruto out of the corner of her eye and her grin grew as they neared the kage building. Out of the small windows of Gaara's office came light signaling that he was still up doing paperwork.

"Hurry up, Naruto!" She took the lead, racing into the building.

She had stealthily made it inside the building and sat quietly right outside of the doors to the kage's office. She heard Naruto pant beside her as he approached.

"What is this all about?"

Hitomi silenced him by bringing a finger to her scarlet lips. She wanted to burst in the room and run around like a screaming banshee or something similar just to surprise and annoy Gaara. '_He'll see. It's not easy to get rid of me._' She silently nodded her head to herself and felt Naruto's stare on the back of her head.

'_What is she up to?'_ Naruto thought.

"Okay. One… Two… Thre-!" Hitomi leapt towards the door with a kick that would make Lee and Gai-sensei proud and knocked it in accidentally/purposely.

Naruto watched the chaos that ensued Hitomi's stunt. He noticed Gaara sidestepping the door as it was flung inside the room. With the force of Hitomi's kick, the door flew straight in and slammed into something in front of Gaara's desk.

Hitomi did not fail to notice this either. She turned her head in Gaara's direction bearing the famous fox-like face dipped in disappointment that Naruto had. Gaara was just standing on the side glaring at her with his arms crossed. '_Like he's some kind of respectful elder._' Hitomi scoffed and walked towards the fallen door. She lifted the door off the large object to bring it back to the doorway but instead of an object, she found a KO'd Kankurou with a bloody forehead.

"Woops! I missed." She nervously laughed but Naruto's bellowing laugh covered it up completely. She looked back at Naruto to see him clutching his stomach and holding himself up with one hand on Gaara's shoulder. His body was shaking furiously in accordance to his laughter. Gaara just stared at him from the side and sighed.

'_I can never get any work done._'

* * *

Poor Gaara. So diligent. So hard-working. So smexy.

Pretty boring chapter but hey- I had to get some of their History down. For those of you that still have ants in your pants about the whole 'not remembering Gaara' thing… Patience is a virtue my friend.

Oh, and constructive criticism is very much welcome- especially for this chapter. I'm sorry that this chapter came out all unsatisfying and stuff but it was difficult for me. I AM UNWORTHY! bangs head against wall repeatedly


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

**Chapter 8: Clues**

* * *

"Just a sorry would do fine, you know." Kankurou wiped the blood off his face with a wet towel and sat down in a chair next to Gaara.

"I'm so sorry! It was all meant for Gaara. I swear!" Hitomi bowed in front of Kankurou, playfully groveling.

Gaara raised an invisible eyebrow and gave a low sigh. '_Why am I surrounded by idiots?_' He thought as Naruto crawled around his office on his hands and knees.

"Eh? Naruto, what are you doing?" Kankurou asked.

'_Exactly what I'd like to know_.' Gaara thought.

'_How can he look so serious while crawling around like that is what I'd like to know. But that question's fine too_.' Hitomi stood and brushed off the nonexistent dirt on her knees.

"Well, the mission was to look for clues to the whereabouts to the Amethyst Moon Gem, so I'm starting here." Came Naruto's reply through a grin and a thumbs up similar to Gai-sensei.

'_Idiot._' Kankurou thought.

'_Idiot._' Gaara thought.

'_My hero..!_' Hitomi thought sarcastically.

"You can rest assured that if there were any clues to be found in my office, I would have informed you by now."

"How do you know if there aren't any?"

"…" Gaara glared hard at Naruto while Hitomi took the liberty of answering.

"Because the fight took place on the other side of the village and was in no way linked to the Kazekage this time." '_Geez, he can be such an idiot sometimes_.'

"R-right. So let's go to the site to investigate. Dattebayo!"

"That's not needed because apparently, Gaara already has everything that he needs right here in his office in a fancy little file." Hitomi casually pretended to examine her nails and ignore Gaara's sharp glare.

"Oh. Then I guess we should start reading the file?" Naruto walked towards the desk and reached for the file that Hitomi had pointed at. However, before he could pick it up, Gaara's hands rested upon the file quite harshly.

"That's also not needed because apparently, Hitomi has the key to getting most of the important information but refuses to. Instead she's decided to stand stubbornly against it and pretend to look at her fancy little nails." He mocked without much feeling which annoyed Hitomi even more.

She snapped her head in Gaara's direction and let out the nastiest glare.

"Well, atleast I have eyebrows."

"Do not mock what I do not have when you are missing something as well." Gaara shot back.

"Oh? And what would that be, pray tell?"

"Breasts."

Hitomi flushed considerably in anger and attempted to lash out at Gaara but was once again stopped by his sand. The both of them held a death glaring contest and Naruto tried to nudge the file out from under Gaara's fist.

"Calm down you two. You're acting like 6 year olds. I guess in the end, I'm still the eldest." Kankurou shook his head and smirked.

Both Hitomi and Gaara turned their heads in hopes of sizzling Kankurou with their glares. They could tell that they weren't having any luck due to the fact that Kankurou had not spontaneously combusted or smelled like bacon.

"Well, if what Hitomi says is true then we should read that file." Kankurou said.

"And if what Gaara says is true, then it's your job Hitomi to gather as much information as you can to get back the Gem." Naruto yanked the file out from under Gaara's hand.

'_Why is Naruto on his side?_'

'_Why is Kankurou on her side?_'

Hitomi growled but maintained the glare fixated on Gaara. He walked away coolly towards Naruto as he read the file.

'_Victory!_' She thought.

'_I have better things to do than waste my time and energy on playing a glare game._' He thought.

They waited patiently until Naruto and Kankurou finished reviewing the file. Hitomi in the meanwhile took her time to daydream while Gaara stood stoically as usual with his eyes closed. Hitomi rested her gaze upon Gaara's face and traced his blackened eyes with curiosity.

"So how come your eyes are all black?" She said aloud.

Naruto and Kankurou merely spared a glance at Gaara's expression before focusing back on the file. Gaara refused to spare anything, not even an answer and instead left Hitomi to wonder in annoyance. Before she could say anything though, Kankurou spoke up having been done reading the gist of the file.

"It says there was a silver kunai left by the leader?"

"Nothing can be traced to their identities or location on the kunai though." Gaara opened his eyes to look at his older brother.

"Other than the kunai and the wanting of the gem and the fact that they are all males, we really have no other information?"

"No." Came Gaara's reply.

Hitomi was still in the midst of reflecting back upon the attack. She replayed the event when the exploding kunai that was meant to connect with her body had never made it. Instead, the silver kunai had been thrown by the leader to save her. '_But why?_' She continued to evaluate as the other three were deciding on what time to meet with her Great aunt. Frustrated by the interruption, she again replayed in her mind exactly what had transpired at that moment in an attempt to figure out the mysterious motive of her enemy. Suddenly something clicked.

"Wait. One of them was a female." It really wasn't what she had been searching for in the situation but it was certainly helpful. It also caught the attention of the other three.

"How do you know?" Kankurou asked.

"She was gloveless. You can tell a lot about a woman by her hand." When she received confused stares, she continued. "Her hands were pale and her fingernails were rounded. Clean and long."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Naruto asked confused as to why Hitomi would go into such detail on someone's fingernails.

"Oh, but Naruto, it has to do with a lot. It means that this woman does not usually associate in ninja activities or the everyday toils. Her hands were really smooth which means that she has the time and maybe even is required to do it for work."

"But doesn't that mean she's of the upper-class? Why would she need to work?" Kankurou questioned.

"Because she's not of the upper-class. As nice as her hands were, they had creases in them. She works with her hands but not laboriously. They were also pale so she keeps indoors. Now the question is what does she do? If we can figure that out then we can put in a search."

Gaara nodded with a bit of admiration for this hunter-nin. Perhaps he was wrong when he had told her that she did not know how to do her job correctly.

"Her fingernails were also not painted. This means that she is a serious woman. She takes her job seriously and does not goof off."

"Then what job do you think she has?" Gaara spoke up. Hitomi didn't even glance at him. Instead, she ignored him and faced Naruto to talk.

"So have you guys decided on when we're meeting the Arima clan tomorrow?"

"Uh… Yeah. Around ten in the morning. I'll meet you guys there." Naruto said carefully, noticing Gaara's glare in the background.

"From where? Are you staying at a hotel?"

"No." He replied sheepishly with a grin. "On a roof."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I heard that the Kage of Suna won't let anyone go on roofs at anytime unless it's for punishment." Hitomi crossed her arms and nodded with her eyes closed in memory.

"I could care less if you slept on a roof." Gaara directed the statement at Hitomi but instead, everyone else thought he had directed it at Naruto.

'_He must've meant something else_.' Kankurou thought.

'_That bastard._' Hitomi thought with a glare.

'_Yay. Free of charge._' Naruto grinned.

"Whatever. It's already really late so let's leave and we'll meet in the front of the building at ten." Hitomi shoved Naruto's shoulder forcefully towards the door. "Let's go Naruto. Goodnight, Kankurou."

Naruto followed after Hitomi out the door leaving Kankurou with an annoyed Kazekage.

"Goodnight." Kankurou replied with not a care in the world except for those concerning his sleep and food. '_On that note..._' He thought. "Wait, what about breakfast?" He ran out the door after Hitomi and Naruto.

Gaara sighed and closed the door to his office. He sat down onto his chair and tucked away the files before resting his head upon his arms in an attempt to calm the raging headache.

* * *

Hitomi yawned and stretched her arms before lying back down with a thud.

"Ow!"

"You didn't have to sleep outside with me, you know." Naruto kept his arms crossed behind his head as a pillow on the roof's hard surface.

"No way. How could I just leave you outside to sleep like a hobo? Plus the stars are amazing in the desert."

Naruto gave a light smile of appreciation before nodding off to sleep even in the chilly night. Hitomi lay back next to Naruto for a while and watched the stars.

Possibly an hour had passed by before Hitomi slid out from underneath her blanket and tossed it on Naruto. As she sat on the edge, thoughts of meeting the only other family she had left were plaguing her mind. She truly didn't know what to think. Should she be angry or happy? Sad or excited?

'_I'm so confused_.' She glanced at her feet. '_Then there's the problem with my joyous little episodes that keep slapping me across the face._' She sat for a little while longer before standing up with a purpose. _'I might as well pass the time by searching for more clues on the mission._' She frowned. '_Both missions_.' She corrected herself.

With that thought, she dropped down onto the ground and in front of the building with the convenient roof. She checked to see if the lights were still on in the building before walking into the building she had dropped from. It was the Kage's building. She had wanted to make a statement by sleeping on the Kage's building and annoying the red haired Kage. So far, no complaints had been made.

She especially checked the window belonging to the Kazekage, not desiring any type of confrontation with the sand boy. As she broke the handle of the building and slipped in, she quietly shut the door behind her and made her way up the stairs towards the office. Once she got there, she snuck in and fumbled her way into the dark abyss that was Gaara's office. The moon and stars had been covered with a thick cloud and refused to surrender any light to aid Hitomi on her hunt.

She didn't want to alert anyone of her existence in the Kazekage's office so she left the darkness as it was. Trying to remember exactly where he had kept the files, she neared the desk and swept her hand on the surface, searching for any files that weren't tucked away. When her hand met nothing but the smooth surface, Hitomi stepped around the desk and stood behind where Gaara would usually sit. Her hungry hands inched along the desk and felt every detail. Eventually, they ran cross another thin edge but instead of a desk, it was surely belonging to a file.

'_Score!_' She cheered.

She tried to lift the file off of the desk but it was weighed down by something. Something that knew how to give out a menacing growl.

"What are you doing in my office at this time?" Hitomi jumped at the deep voice and hit her hip hard on the sharp edge of the desk.

"Kami! Why didn't you tell me you were still in here?!" Hitomi placed her hand over her rapidly beating heart trying to calm it down.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to sneak back into my office for the files?" Gaara shot back.

Hitomi kept silent. She tried to adjust her eyes to the pitch black of the room. The silence in the room was hollow.

"I couldn't sleep. What about you? What are you doing up at this ungodly hour?"

"… I don't sleep." Gaara allowed his dark-adjusted eyes to rest on Hitomi's face. A few moments passed before Gaara decided to answer her previous question. "That's why I have the black outlines of my eyes."

"That's impossible. Every human needs 8 hours of sleep a night."

"I wasn't human." Gaara could make out the frown of confusion on Hitomi's face. "It's just a habit." He corrected for her benefit as well as his.

"That's an odd habit to have."

The clouds uncovered the moon in surrender and the room was instantly basked with the soft stolen light of the Sun. With the light, she looked down on Gaara who was sitting at his desk. His head was resting in his arms on his desk. His head was laid to the side so he could see Hitomi. She felt nervous under his scrutinizing gaze and averted her eyes to the file under his head and arms.

Before she could ask him about his position and the lights, Gaara saved her the trouble.

"I have a headache."

"Oh."

Gaara slowly lifted his head off his arms and held the file in his hands. After a few moments of evaluating it, he held it up for Hitomi.

"Don't lose it."

Hitomi stood in surprise before taking the file.

"I'll have it with me in the morning." She said and turned to leave but instead, paused in the doorway. "Cold water mixed with the scent of citrus."

Gaara remained silent.

"That's what… That's what my mother used to make me when I had a headache." Hitomi said before closing the door behind her.

The red-haired boy sat in silence with the moon's light encircling him. A twitch of a smile attacked his lips.


	9. Chapter 9

**Important**: I went back and changed some stuff in the story. Not a whole lot, but I added some extra dialogue especially in chapter 7 to help the story flow a little more smoothly. Also, back at the end of chapter 5, Gaara did not take the key and there was no kiss.

Since I've been gone for more than a year, my writing style has changed a bit. So when I came back and reread everything, I wanted to scrap this whole story and just start over. But I've decided to keep it even though it'll probably contrast with my recent and future writing style.

So, forgive me for my absence and forgive me for the crappy beginning to the story. I promise it'll be better. (I hope)

* * *

**Chapter 9: Memory**

* * *

The vibrant sun rose once again over a peaceful village in the glistening sands the desert. Rays of red, orange, and yellow peeped silently over the sandy adobe homes of many dreamers. For many, life was absolutely glorious.

But for a certain Konoha hunter-nin, that was not the case.

"I didn't sleep at all. Not even a wink." Hitomi grumbled as she sat on the edge of the Kazekage building's roof. Her blood-shot eyes told the true tale of one who missed out on the wonderful dreams that many would have.

Hitomi sighed as she dangled her legs off the side of the building with her hand rested on top of the files belonging to her mother's family. She decided to give Naruto a few more minutes of the much desired sleep. Her body was begging her for just a couple minutes of bliss but her mind was not about to comply. Instead, it did what inquisitive and annoying minds do best: think. It thought about the mother and the family. It thought about the sudden death of its mother. It thought about the events that had happened of late and it even thought about the scenes that could occur that day as she was meeting the mother's family. Every single thought was linked to one thing, or rather woman. That damned mother.

She had left to fight in the war and came back home to Hitomi and her father without saying a word. There were many that did not survive the war, yet her mother did not share the same enthusiasm as Hitomi did.

Hitomi watched the sun fully expose itself over the sand's horizon when she sensed a chakra signature near her. She peered over her legs to find Gaara standing in front of the building below her.

"Let's go." Gaara told her loud enough to hear but quiet enough as to not disturb the sleeping blond.

Hitomi jumped down from the roof quietly and landed with grace right in front of the red-head. She carried the files in her hand and frowned as she glanced at the sun's position out of the corner of her eye.

"Go where? It's too early to be ten."

"Preparations will take much longer than a few minutes before the due time." Hitomi gave a look of confusion.

"What preparations?"

"You're not expecting to meet them wearing that." Gaara didn't even question her.

"Yes, I am. They'll respect me for who I am."

"I wouldn't."

"That's why you're not family."

"Family will be family whether you like it or not." Gaara said with a quick thought of resentment towards his father.

"If they were family then they would've contacted me earlier and mentioned to me of their existence instead of popping out from nowhere and demanding me to partake in silly legends." Hitomi crossed her arms.

"They don't know you exist." Gaara stated bluntly. Hitomi overlapped her surprise with a glare at the ground. There was silence among the both of them for a short while before Hitomi replied.

"Then let's leave it that way."

"Not when a part of my village is destroyed and the lives 9 of my own shinobi go in vain."

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Hitomi raised her voice. "It'd just be awkward if I were to just show up and announce myself as their long lost relative. Let's just let bygones be bygones. Why don't you guys go talk to her and I'll go continue the investigation." She held the file out for Gaara to see.

"You've attempted to continue the investigation for the entire night. I suspect it's gotten you nowhere. What makes you think you'll find something now?"

"It's better than wasting my time having a family reunion with people related to her." She spoke as if her mother were a vile creature.

"The investigation cannot be furthered without your presence."

"Why? Why don't you just go and try to get the information from her before you go telling me what to do?" She said angrily.

"Because I already tried." That shut Hitomi up. "The result was her ignoring us for most of the questioning with a few colorful remarks here and there. She believes that we're trying to steal information to take the gem for ourselves."

"Look, I just plain don't want to go and you can't make me."

"You will do as I tell you. This charade has gone on long enough. I am Kazekage and you need to start treating me as such. You try my patience again and again. I don't think Konoha would be too happy to risk another war because of you. I may not be your own Hokage but as an allied country, I hold just as much power over you. Remember that." Gaara spoke with a questionably smooth voice with evident malice.

Hitomi stared at him with a bit of shock. She bowed her head down. '_Total submission._' She grumbled inwardly. She averted her eyes from Gaara when she lifted her head up.

"What am I wearing?"

* * *

Hitomi rested her head back on the end of the tub. She took in the chamomile aroma exuding from the warm bath waters. Her eyelids drooped halfway closed and her brow was up in worry.

She remembered her mother. Arima Yasuka. It had almost been 12 years, but the memory of the woman's coldness still lingered. The war had changed her for the worse.

* * *

"_**Kaa-san!" A young 5 year old Hitomi stumbled towards her sitting mother. She knew her mother was a flower-lover. Her father had gotten her cypress and aconite flowers to give to her mother. Her voice cried out again in little more than a mere squeak. "Kaa-san!"**_

_**Yasuka turned her head to gaze upon her small daughter. Her long silver hair fell into waves that accentuated her blue eyes. Eyes that used to look upon Hitomi in pure love now looked so somber.**_

_**Hitomi smiled shyly before presenting the flowers and small branches to her mother.**_

"_**I love you, kaa-san. Please smile." Hitomi grinned sweetly to her mother. Her little lips stained in red juice coloring. Her big brown eyes were widened and adoring her mother. But Yasuka kept her eyes on the flowers. Hitomi's frail arms grew tired and her smile started to fade. **_

_**Slowly, her mother reached out with a pale hand and tightly grasped the flowers. Her eyes never left them. Hitomi grinned shyly and ran away.**_

* * *

It had always been like that. Time dragged on as Yasuka gave not a single word nor shed a single petal of love to Hitomi. Refused to even look at her father.

Hitomi submerged her whole self deeply under the scented water before wrapping a towel around her body.

Quickly dressing herself in a simple white and violet kimono provided by Temari, she began to get ready. Soon, her hair was in a messy bun held together with white chopsticks and black eyeliner applied to heighten up her eyes.

'_It's okay. I don't care what they think of me anyway.'_ She told herself.

Hitomi slid the thin door open and stepped out. Waiting for her outside the door was none other than Temari.

"Ready? It's your big day." The blonde grinned.

"Who am I marrying?"

"Marrying?"

"Well, it's my big day. I must be doing something important today."

"Like meeting your long lost family?"

"Not important enough." Hitomi gave a light 'hmph' and lifted her chin up in defiance.

"Okay. Then marrying Gaara?"

"That sounds better." Her head whipped back towards Temari. "Wait- what?"

"You asked. I answered."

"Hah. Not in a million years, Temari. He's a turd."

"But you're starting to like him."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Prove it."

"You're jealous of Gaara hugging that other girl."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. What Kankurou saw was his business and what Gaara does with other girls is his own business."

"Oh, but it's significant enough for you to remember what Kankurou said."

"I'm a ninja. I'm supposed to remember everything."

"But according to Gaara, you don't remember everything."

Hitomi paused at Temari's words. Her eyebrows dipped down and her eyes carefully evaluated Temari's face for a reason as to why she had said it. Temari's teal eyes never wavered as they locked onto Hitomi's.

"What do you mean by that?" Hitomi cautiously asked.

"What do you think I mean?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Then why do you ask?"

"Because you sound suspicious. Or am I just paranoid?"

"You're paranoid. I guess I just said it to keep the conversation going. But now we're about to be late. We should get going."

"Wait-" Hitomi started, but Temari had simply turned and walked off. Hitomi decided that there was definitely something suspicious about the sand siblings. It was almost as if they were hinting at something, but she couldn't figure out what it was. Perhaps something had happened in the past that she couldn't remember? She had thought about it before, but she couldn't remember anything.

Eventually, she followed Temari's path and met up with the Kazekage. Temari was dressed no differently than she usually was, but Gaara had his standard Kazekage robes on. With his hat in hand, he turned his gaze from Temari to Hitomi. It rested upon Hitomi for a brief moment before flitting back to glance at Temari then back to the door.

"It's about time." Temari smiled to the brown haired girl and Gaara before motioning with a wave.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Back to my patrolling."

"I thought you were coming with us."

"Sorry. The Arima clan doesn't want to be surrounded by a lot of people so it's just you and Gaara at the meeting." Temari replied apologetically.

Hitomi's face paled and she suddenly felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It finally dawned on her that she was really doing this. Meeting her long lost family. There was no way out. And one wrong move could mean failure in not only her identity and abilities, but also her village and honor.

The blonde sister disappeared leaving only the brown and red haired teenagers. Gaara remained silent and walked off towards their destination. Hitomi stayed for a few long moments before beginning to walk after Gaara.

With every step she took, her muscles stiffened and weight was increasingly added to her shoulders.

* * *

A bit shorter than the previous chapters, but I wanted to get this ball rolling by posting something.


End file.
